McCartney Times

The Monkees formed in 1966 as the American answer to The Beatles. The LA group started initially by creating music for the TV programme of the same name. After receiving a great deal of attention, the group, consisting of Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork and English actor/singer Davy Jones, decided to pursue a more forthright music career.

They became exceedingly successful in rebranding Beatlemania for the US, with many of their photographs from the mid-1960s showing familiar cheeky smiles under shiny mops of hair.

From listening to the Monkees’ music, it isn’t difficult to conceive that they took much of their inspiration from The Beatles. But the group once admitted that one of their number one hits, ‘Last Train to Clarksville’, was directly influenced by three different Beatles hits.

Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart co-wrote a number of The Monkees’ tracks, including the band’s original television theme song and ‘Valleri’. In a 2015 memoir, Hart explained the origin of ‘Last Train to Clarksville’. “We fashioned a storyline about a soldier heading off to face combat and an uncertain future,” Hart wrote. “Frantically, he was trying to arrange train transportation for a rendezvous to see the girl he loved for what could very well be the last time.”

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Source: The Beatles’ songs that inspired a Monkees number one