Remembering The Monkees Davy Jones (1945-2012)

Today we lost a great actor/ singer / personality, the Monkees Davy Jones. I was a huge fan of the MONKEES, first as a kid watching the TV show reruns, after school & Saturday mornings. Then later I became a huge fan of their music. I have both seasons of the TV DVD box sets, Monkees cards & all their music as well as the mvie HEAD. They brought me alot of laughter & music in my life. I was very saddened to hear of Jones' passing today, I thank all of my friends & family who contacted me with the info all afternoon. may you daydream in peace forever davy...........

David Thomas Jones was born in Manchester, England on December 30th, 1945. Jones began acting on British Television by the time he was 11 years old. By his early teens, after his mothers passing he became a trained jockey riding horses. His trainer had a friend who worked in the Theater & when castings for the play Oliver began, they knew Jones was the guy. Davy played the Artful Dodger in Oliver at London & then on Broadway in New York, earning Tony Award nomination. On February 9th, 1964 his Oliver cast appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show the same night the Beatles were on making their American debut, changing the world forever. Davy later said that night as he stood on the side of the stage watching the girls go wild, he knew he wanted to do that.

Jones then signed a deal with screen Gems and had small parts on shows like Ben Casey & the Farmers Daughter. When the casting began for the Monkees TV show, Jones auditioned & got the part. He was perfect, as the short good looking English kid with the Beatle mop top & the good singing voice. He was funny, likeable, & the girls loved him. Jones became a teen idol, a sixties female heartthrob sensation.

The Monkees TV show was a huge success although it only had two year run at first, but then lived on for the next decade in reruns & Saturday Morning programming. The Monkees were the first of the sixties younger generation to make it into prime time breaking the barrier into the establishment. The wild zany rock band was a cross between the Beatles A Hard Days Night & the Marx brothers. Most of the rock bands of the day & the young people loved them, even if at first they didn’t play their own instruments. They broke through were funny, so they were hip. The Beatles themselves loved them; members of the Monkees were at Abbey Road studios during the Sgt. Pepper recordings, most famously the A Day In The Life session.

Eventually the Monkees took more control of their music, played the instruments & went on successful tours. They had some of the best writers of the day writing songs for them as well, Goffin & Carole King, Neil diamond, David Gates, & Boyce &Hart to name a few. And even more famously the Monkees would have a song play & the band would either be running around in a comedy skit or act out performing it live. The scenes were called romps & were the early versions of what eventually became music videos.

No matter what people say about The Monkees they were (& are) a very successful act. They were the first music artist to win two Emmy awards. In 1967 I’m A Believer was the #1 record of the year with Davys Daydream Believer the #3 record of the year. Their album More of the Monkees spent 70 weeks on the charts becoming the 12th biggest selling album of all time. In their hey day they had four number one albums in a two year span. They held the #1 spot on the album charts for 31 straight weeks (37 weeks overall). After their TV days, they experimented with the psychedelic cult movie classic, Head. The name was inspired with the thought of a sequel & the motto “from the people who gave you Head…..”

Davy Jones sand lead on Monkees classics; like Daydream Believer, Valeri, Laugh, I Wanna Be Free, She Hangs Out & Cuddly Toy. On the TV show every week, Jones would fall in love with a new sixties hot chick leading to some kind of zany comedy. After the Monkees Davy appeared on TV shows such as Love American style 7 the classic Brady Bunch episode where he takes Marcia to the prom. Jones appeared live as a solo tour & recorded as well. He & Mickey Dolenz & Peter Tork reunited the Monkees in 1986 with a new greatest hits album 7 a successful concert tour. The group got back for a few tours more recently last year on a fantastic reunion tour.

Davy Jones was married three times, his most recent wife Jessica many years his junior. He left behind four daughters &three grand children. He suffered an apparent heart attack on February 29th, leap year 2012 in Indiantown Florida. He was 66 years old. My most recent funny lasting memory of Jones happened last year on the Monkees Tour. When the group came out on stage, Davy said in all classic Monkee humor “Good evening I’m Davy Jones' father Davy will be out shortly. Shine until tomorrow Davy, thanks for bringing laughter & music to my life.

http://www.centerfieldmaz.com/2011/06/concert-review-hey-hey-were-monkees.html