Davy Jones (1945-2012): The 'Cute Monkee'

Davy Jones of the Monkees at a press conference in Sydney, 1968 / photographed by Greg Lee for Australian Photographic Agency (Photo credit: State Library of New South Wales collection)Davy Jones, the actor and singer who became a teenage idol in the 1960s with The Monkees, died of a heart attack on Leap Year Day at age 66.  Think of him as the Justin Bieber of the era.

To anyone in our audience who isn't a Baby Boomer (or even if you are), an explanation of who The Monkees were is in order.  They were a pop group created in the mid-60s by TV and music executives to be an American counterpart with The Beatles, and other British-based rock bands of the time.

After numerous auditions involving actors and singers, four were chosen to comprise the group--Jones, Mickey Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork.  Since they were supposed to resemble the Beatles, each man had their roles.  For Jones, it was Paul McCartney, the "Cute Beatle".

"The Monkees" debuted on NBC in the fall of 1966 as a fast-paced comedy with music segments.  At the same time, the songs that were introduced on the show made their way to Top 40 radio and to record stores.  Most of the hit records ("Last Train to Clarksville", "I'm a Believer", etc.) were sung by Dolenz, but Jones contributed with "Daydream Believer", "Valleri" and "I Wanna Be Free".  Many of the tunes were written by some of the top songwriters in music at the time, including Carole King and Neil Diamond.

As the Monkees' success grew, the group started raising a stink about becoming a real band instead of being a front for session musicians, because they weren't allowed to play instruments and to write their own material.  They got their wish, and with it they produced a couple of albums on their own.

When the TV show ended after two seasons, so did The Monkees as a group.  Jones made one memorable appearance on "The Brady Bunch", but other than that he did some stage acting and continued to tour with The Monkees (with or without Nesmith, who seemed to have his own agenda), as well as on his own on the oldies circuit.

Critics may carp at how artificial The Monkees were (they were dubbed "The Prefab Four"), but they were actually a pretty good band.  They had several memorable pop hits that still resonate today, and their TV show paved the way for the music videos we saw first on MTV and later You Tube.  And Davy Jones was one reason why.