Music Box

LAST week I received a phone call saying that Davy Jones had passed away – I was immediately saddened to think that one of the characters from Pirates Of The Caribbean was no longer with us until it was pointed out that it wasn’t him but one of The Monkees.
 
Little Davy Jones was indeed a small figure but he was voted in a 2008 poll as the Top Teen Idol Of All Time, and his cheeky English charisma which came across so well in both music and TV was totally natural. For those who don’t know, The Monkees were probably the very first band put together by the music industry which earned them the nickname The Pre-Fab Four in light of their direct comparison to The Beatles.

Davy Jones was a Manchester lad who started acting at a very young age appearing in Coronation Street, but he left the stage to become a jockey in and around Newmarket, Suffolk. His trainer at the time suggested him for the stage role of Oliver which then led to some minor TV work and eventually he was handpicked for his place alongside the other three Monkees. But let us not forget these classic tunes for which made the world adore this cheeky chappy:

A Little Bit of Me, A Little Bit Of You
Last Train To Clarkesville
Daydream Believer
Pleasant Valley Sunday

And, probably the most famous piece of trivia is that Neil Diamond wrote I’m A Believer, but he didn’t write it for The Monkees, it was just that the cover versions were released before his own.
 
Let’s leave you with another little gem: A midlife crisis is when you realise your children and your clothes are roughly the same age.