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By Alyn Shipton

Singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson worked in the computer department of a California bank throughout the early 1960s. For much of that time, he managed the night shift, clocking on in the early evening and finishing around 1 a.m. Then, instead of going to sleep, he wrote songs all night. Being a man of considerable energy, he spent the daytime hawking his songs around publishers.

There were a few successes. He made a small number of single records himself, and some of his songs were picked up by others, including Phil Spector. He recorded some of them with the Ronettes and the Modern Folk Quartet, but failed to issue the discs at the time.

Then in March 1967, the Modern Folk Quartet’s bassist Chip Douglas began working as a producer for the Monkees. He invited Nilsson to come and demonstrate some of his songs, and the result was that the Monkees, with Davy Jones singing the lead vocal, recorded “Cuddly Toy”.

This became a hit, and Nilsson earned enough in royalties to be able to quit his job at the bank, and begin his own career as a singer. The song also marked the beginning of a long friendship with the Monkees, and particularly Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones, who would, many years later, star in the London stage production of Nilsson’s fantasy musical “The Point”.

In between, there was plenty more music. Nilsson penned “Daddy’s Song” for the Monkees movie Head, and he and Davy Jones appeared together singing in television commercials. There was horseplay in the Los Angeles studios of RCA, when the Monkees and Nilsson found themselves in adjacent booths, recording for the label. And there was hanging out together, as Nilsson would do at Dolenz’s Laurel Canyon home, thinking up ideas for songs, playing parlor games, and having the occasional drink or seven. Nilsson and Micky became such close buddies, that when Nilsson went to Ireland to meet his prospective wife’s parents, Micky came along as well. Micky was also one of the many rock stars who borrowed Nilsson’s London apartment (that would later become infamous when both Mama Cass and Keith Moon died there).

Although he was perhaps more famous for his associations with John Lennon and Ringo Starr, Nilsson was equally involved with “America’s answer to the Beatles”.

Alyn Shipton is the award-winning author of many books on music including Nilsson: The Life of a Singer-Songwriter, A New History of Jazz, Groovin’ High: the Life of Dizzy Gillespie, and Hi-De-Ho: The Life of Cab Calloway. He is jazz critic for The Times in London and has presented jazz programs on BBC radio since 1989. He is also an accomplished double bassist and has played with many traditional and mainstream jazz bands.

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Image credit: Monkees disc cover via 45cat.

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By Gordon Thompson

As the Beatles made their historic debut on American television in February 1964, the cast of Oliver!, the actor playing the role of the Artful Dodger, and other acts on the show watched from the wings as the hysteria unfolded. Davy Jones had started his acting career on British television, making his debut appearance in the venerable Coronation Street followed by the gritty Liverpool police drama, Z-Cars. His diminutive stature made him a natural to play teens, but also suggested that he could be a good jockey, and he briefly pursued this career; but when a casting call came for the Broadway version of Lionel Bart’s Oliver!, Jones’ youthful looks seemed ideally suited to play the charismatic child thief and the title character’s mentor. In New York, he received a Tony nomination for his portrayal; however, he had watched the Beatles dominate British media in 1963 and, as they now similarly triumphed in the North America, he saw the next stage in his career.

America’s 1964 hunger for all things British and Jones’ obvious talent brought him to the attention of Screen Gems and American television, which cast him in an episode of the medical drama, Ben Casey. And in 1965, when Screen Gems began searching for talented and attractive actors for a comedy loosely imitating the Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night, Jones’s profile easily rose to the top of the list. The Monkees debuted in the fall of 1966 on American television and, at 20, his boyish good looks made him an immediate fan favorite. Indeed, he ranked among the most popular male pop figures of the 1960s, his picture regularly appearing in teen magazines. But in an era when the Beatles implored you to turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream, a culture war raged over the Monkees’ authenticity. Nevertheless, Jones supplied strong vocal performances on Monkees’ recordings, especially “Daydream Believer,” the band’s last major hit, and the band with the assistance of a strong studio produced nearly perfect pieces of pop. Moreover, of the four actors who played the Monkees, Jones particularly had both the voice and the charismatic looks for a solo career.

While internal and external tensions eventually led to the end of both the television series and the band, Jones continued to perform, sometimes with fellow Monkee (and child actor) Mickey Dolenz and briefly with songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. In the post-Monkees years, he had a number brief appearances in television and film, and in the eighties, MTV reintroduced the television series and the band to a new generation of viewers.

In the nineties, a reunited Monkees toured and even last year Jones made a number of appearances with Monkees members Dolenz and Peter Tork. From his early experiences as a jockey, Jones maintained an interest in horse racing as an owner and his stable had success on both sides of the Atlantic. Nevertheless, performance remained important to Jones and he had a series of American concert dates scheduled for 2012 with his band.

Jones died this morning at his home in Indiantown, Florida at the age of 66.

Happy Leap Day!

I’ve always had this fascination for a day that only chooses to show up every four years.  I think it has such flair, never wanting to over stay its welcome.  I’ve thought about people born on this day, are almost measured in dog years minus three.

Puppicasso doesn’t equate things in terms of age, but he has imagine if he himself was born on Leap Day, would he have to multiply his age by 11 years?  Oy, he feels old enough already.  Although this day is a celebration to him, of a little more time to play, so I give you Puppicasso-a-leaping.

http://youtu.be/G_4jESA4PRk

With all this celebration in the morning, we were saddened to find out that afternoon that Davy Jones from the Monkees had died suddenly.  Puppicasso and I are with heavy heart, because as we got an extra day, that day became his last.

Puppi dedicates his favorite Monkees song to him:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBlitTE9kLk