Song #177 - I'm A Believer" - The Monkees

Recorded - October 15 and 23, 1966

Released - November 21, 1966

#1 for weeks of December 31, 1966, January 7, 14, 21 and 28  &  February 4 and 11, 1967. 

     The final #1 of '66 just barely makes the cut as it was technically only #1 for one single day this year. Meanwhile, it spent a whopping 48 days at #1 in 1967! I'm not going to ramble discuss my opinion on The Monkees again, (Read my review of "Last Train To Clarksville" for that). I will say though that "I'm A Believer" is usually one Monkees number even critics of the band will admit to liking. And do I like it? Yes I do. 

     "I'm A Believer" was written by none other than Neil Diamond. Neil had quite a successful 1966, with both "Solitary Man" and "Cherry Cherry" being recorded and released. All three of the above mentioned songs are roughly in the same tempo and are all light rockers. "I'm A Believer" may contain rather common love song lyrics, but again this was a song meant for a 1960's teen girl demographic so we can't expect a "Light My Fire".

     Musically, I think the pre-choruses hit the biggest sweet spot, with some nicely placed wordless backing vocals. This aspect is sorely lacking in the subsequent Smash Mouth cover from 2001. Mickey Dolenz does a pretty good job vocally as well, and I've always recognized him as having a pretty unique singing voice. Also, whoever the session musicians are who played on this song, they do a good job, but it certainly isn't The Monkees playing the instruments. In fact...

     The parent album of "I'm A Believer", More Of The Monkees, was released in January 1967 during the peak of The Monkees' popularity. This album featured near zilch involvement, (Lyrics and instrumentation), by the foursome. In fact, they had no idea it was even being released, and didn't even chose the album cover. This was the final straw for The Monkees and they demanded from this point on to have control over their music. We'll see how that worked out for them when we get to late 1967...

Final Verdict  - "I'm A Believer" is quite a notable Monkees number that has managed to win approval by quite a vast demographic of music fans. It may be poppy, and it may not be the best of of '66 or '67, but it's good pop, and I give it my thumbs up. 

                         Coming Up Next - 1966 Reflection. 

             Until Next Time - I'm Dr. Rock, and I'm a believer -