Ian Dury had a 1979 top 10 with Reasons to Be Cheerful (Part 3) and I always wondered what happened to parts one and two. There were no parts one and two. It is a similar story of this week’s suggestion of Daydream Believer as made famous by the Monkees. The song’s writer, John Stewart wrote this song as the third part of a trilogy, but unlike Ian Dury’s hit, we do know something about the first two parts.
The Beatles were outgrowing their young fans and The Monkees were intended to fill the gap, their half-hour TV series including the same zaniness as A Hard Day’s Night. The Monkees are often cited as the first ‘manufactured’ band and this is how they came to be; an advert inserted in the Hollywood Daily Variety in August 1965 told of auditions for a new TV series with ‘running parts for four insane boys, aged 17-21.’ As a result, 437 hopefuls were auditioned by the producers, Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider. Stephen Stills was rejected, but he found fame elsewhere. The successful applicants were Davy Jones (a Mancunian who had played Ena Sharples’ grandson in Coronation Street and The Artful Dodger in Oliver! on Broadway), Mickey Dolenz (the child star of the TV series, Circus Boy, and a competent drummer and singer), Michael Nesmith (a singer and songwriter working in folk music) and Peter Tork (a singer and guitarist who opened for José Feliciano).
All their early songs were commissioned by Screen Gems, but that was no hardship as their writers included Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. The music would be recorded by top session men including Glen Campbell, Leon Russell and Hal Blaine, and The Monkees themselves would simply add their voices.
They opened their UK chart account with six hit singles in 1967, the first being a cover of Neil Diamond’s I’m A Believer which went to number one and became the first new number one of 1967. The follow up, Last Train to Clarksville stalled at number 23 so they returned to Neil Diamond for A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You which put them back in the top three. Randy Scouse Git was written by Mickey Dolenz, but the record label was troubled by the title, besides, in America, they wouldn’t have understood ‘Scouse’ so the label said, ‘you’ll have to find an alternate title’ and that became the title, and it went to number two. This was followed by Pleasant Valley Sunday written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King about the place they lived in New Jersey. Their final hit of the year was Daydream Believer, written by a folk singer who had been a member of the early 60s group The Kingston Trio.
After leaving the Trio, he teamed up with a then-relatively unknown singer/songwriter called John Denver. This song Stewart wrote on his own and he explained in an interview with American Songwriter how it came about, “I remember writing Daydream Believer very clearly. For some reason I was writing songs all day, every day. It was part of a trilogy, a suburban trilogy. I remember thinking, ‘What a wasted day — all I’ve done is daydream.’ And from there I wrote the whole song.”
The Monkees version, which was originally intended as a B side begins differently from the Stewart version and opens with Davy Jones saying, “7 A, what number is this, Chip? 7 – A, okay, don’t get excited, man, it’s ’cause I’m short, I know.” Chip is the song’s producer Chip Douglas and 7 is the number he assigned to the song. Back in the analogue days, alphanumeric designation to tracks was commonplace, but as to why the Jones narrative was left in is not clear. It transpires that the Goin’ Down – the original intended A side – wasn’t ready and so Daydream Believer ended up as the A-side.
The song tells the story of an easy-going guy and his girlfriend who is a former homecoming queen, who agreed to marry him, but things soon went wrong. There will be many British and European readers probably wondering what a homecoming queen actually is, a homecoming is an event where a school’s alumni come back and visit once per year. There is often a sporting event involved followed by a dance, or disco and that often included a popularity contest for the current students. The winners of that contest, one male and one female, is the homecoming king and queen who would lead the dance and oversee other events.
Stewart wrote the song in a matter of minutes and never thought too much of it until he heard the Monkees cover it and was then in two minds about it. He was happy because he couldn’t believe that he, as a folk singer/guitarist had written a song he had written about the truth was about to become a major hit, but riled because a key word in the song had been changed and he knew nothing about it. “I never thought it was one of my best songs,” he continued, “and then when I heard The Monkees do it, I said, ‘My God, the line was supposed to be, ‘You once thought of me as a white knight on his steed, now you know how funky life can be,’ but Davy Jones sings, ‘Now you know how happy life can be.’ The record company wouldn’t let them say ‘funky.” Jones gave his reason, “The music department of our record label said, ‘The Monkees are not singing the word ‘funky’ because it means oily, greasy and sexy – and they weren’t going to have us say it.” I guess once he saw the royalties arriving, he might have forgiven them.
Later in the song, we learn that he really only cares about getting up early and going to work. Soon they were in trouble financially and with trying to comfort her with hopes that weren’t happening the relationship soon fell apart.
John Stewart once said that he lived off that single for a year, but then twelve years later it became a country hit for Anne Murray and the money started rolling in again. In the 2011 film A Few Best Men the song is performed by Olivia Newton-John who plays Barbara Ramme in it.
Other acts who have covered the song are the Four Tops (1968), Robson & Jerome (1995), Shane Richie (1998), Kevin Rowland (1999), Atomic Kitten (2000), Daniel O’Donnell (2004), Susan Boyle (2009), Glee Cast (2015) and Joe McElderry (2017). No wonder the Monkees’ version still gets the most airplays!
John Stewart, who passed away in 2008 from a stroke, when asked how he came up with his best songs replied, “Write early in the morning when you first wake up, take your guitar to bed and write before the critical voice kicks in.”