Monkees – "I'm a Believer" (1966)

Love was out to get me

That's the way it seemed

Disappointment haunted all my dreams

Fifty years ago today, I was a ninth-grader at South Junior High in Joplin, Missouri.

Every Monday afternoon, WHB in Kansas City – 710 on your AM dial – played their new top 40 singles in reverse order.  I turned the radio on as soon as I got home from school and followed the countdown closely, calling a friend of mine during the five-minute news break at the top of each hour to discuss the records played in the previous hour.   

Fifty years ago today, “I’m a Believer” sat atop the Billboard “Hot 100.”  I’m guessing it sat atop the WHB top 40 list as well.

“I’m a Believer” ascended to the #1 spot in the last “Hot 100” chart of 1966, and remained at #1 for seven consecutive weeks.  It was also a #1 hit in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, and the UK.

The B-side of “I’m a Believer” was “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone,” which made it to #20 at the same time that “I’m a Believer” was the #1 song in the U.S.

The Monkees

“I’m a Believer” was written and originally recorded by Neil Diamond.  It was released on his second studio album, Just for You, along with several other hit songs, including “Cherry Cherry,” “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon,” “Solitary Man,” and “Thank the Lord for the Night Time.”

The arrangement of Diamond’s original recording is quite similar to arrangement used for the Monkees’ version.  (Both records were produced by Jeff Barry, who was married to Ellie Greenwich.  Together, they were one of the greatest husband-wife songwriting teams ever.)

Diamond wrote some additional lyrics and re-recorded the song in 1979.  That version of the song is HORRIBLE:

If not for “I’m a Believer,” the Royal Guardsmen’s “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron” would have been a #1 record.  Instead, that record made it only to the #2 spot on the “Hot 100” chart.  It remained there for four weeks.

This year's “28 Songs in 28 Days” will feature songs that were listed in the Billboard “Hot 100” chart in February 1967.  Most of those featured songs are pop classics by groups like the Monkees, Mamas and Papas, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Sonny and Cher, and other pop superstars.  But we'll also showcase some one-hit wonders and novelty songs you've probably forgotten about.

Here’s the most popular record from February 1967 and the biggest-selling single of that entire year . . . “I’m a Believer”:


Click below to buy the song from Amazon:

Monkees – "I'm a Believer" (1967)

Now I'm a believer

Not a trace

Of doubt in my mind

(I’ve been spending a lot of time this week on a really big-deal post, so I need to phone one in.  I’m sure you won’t mind – surely you’re used to that by now.)

Some of you have questioned things I’ve said on 2 or 3 lines in the past.  Big mistake!   

I would hope that by now all you doubting Thomases and Tamsins out there are now 2 or 3 lines believers, and that there is not a trace of doubt in your minds.

For example, if I were to tell you that “Tamsin” is the feminine equivalent of the name “Thomas,” there wouldn’t be a trace of doubt in your mind that I was right.  (Because I am.)

The following hard-to-believe facts are courtesy of Viralscape.com, a shameless purveyor of clickbait that presents irresistible online slide shows categorized as “Funny,” “Cute,” “Amazing,” “Inspiring,” “Creepy,” and “OMG!”

1.  Hippo sweat is red.  (A lot of people will tell you that hippo milk is pink – but it's not.)

2.  The Barbie doll has a name: Barbara Millicent Roberts.

3.  Vending machines kill twice as many people as sharks.

4.  Maine is the closest U.S. state to Africa.  

Betty White is older than sliced bread

5.  Betty White (who was born in 1922) is older than sliced bread (which was first sold in 1928).

6.  Technically, a strawberry isn’t a berry, but a banana is.  (So are avocados and watermelons.) 

7.  John Tyler, who was President of the United States from 1841 to 1845, has two living grandsons.  Tyler was 63 when his son Lyon was born – his wife was only 33.  Lyon was 71 and 75, respectively, when his sons Lyon, Jr., and Harrison were born – his wife was 36 years younger.  Today, Lyon, Jr., is 91 and Harrison is 87.  (Harrison Tyler lives in a house that his grandfather bought in 1842, and which had also been owned by William Henry Harrison, the President who Tyler succeeded.)

John Tyler and his grandsons

By the way, John Tyler fathered more children than any other U.S. president.  He had eight children by his first wife Letitia, who was the same age as Tyler.  After Letitia died of a stroke, Tyler married a woman who was 30 years younger than he was – he was 54, she was 24 – and fathered seven more children.  Subsequent presidents have had sex in the White House with women younger than Tyler's second wife, but didn't end up buying the cow. 

8.  For every human being now alive, there are over 1.5 million living ants.  (The weight of 1.5 million ants is about the same as the average human being.)

9.  You can’t hold your nose closed and hum at the same time.  (Just try it if you don’t believe me.)

10.  Certain turtles can breathe not only through their mouths, but also through their anuses.  

Box turtle

By the way, turtles don’t really have anuses – like other reptiles, birds amphibians, and certain fish, they have cloaca, which is a body cavity into which the intestinal, urinary, and genital tracts all open.  (Ewwwww!) 

I was originally going to feature a different Monkees song in this post.  “Hard to Believe” was released on the Monkees’ 1967 album, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.  (The title of that album refers to the astrological signs of each Monkee: Mickey Dolenz was a Pisces, Peter Tork was an Aquarius, and both Michael Nesmith and Davy Jones were Capricorns.  I guess they didn’t want to name the album Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Capricorn.)

“Hard to Believe” was written by Davy Jones and three guys you’ve never heard of.  It’s not one of the Monkees’ best efforts.  (I hope saying that doesn’t offend anyone.  Some of my readers are very quick to take offense.)

By contrast, “I’m a Believer” – which was penned by Neil Diamond – is a winner.  It held down the #1 spot on the Billboard “Hot 100” chart for seven weeks, and was the best-selling record of 1967.  

Here’s “I’m a Believer”:

Click below to buy the song from Amazon:

Go Home Productions -- "Paperback Believer" (2007)

It's a thousand pages, give or take a few

I'll be writing more in a week or two

Mark Twain produced many, many pithy aphorisms.  But he didn't write many of the most famous sayings that are attributed to him.

Mark Twain

Here are a few famous Mark Twain quotes that Mark Twain apparently never said:

-- "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."

-- "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it."

-- "It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt."

The lines from "Paperback Writer" that are quoted above remind me of another quote that Twain is often given credit for, but which is actually derived from something that the French philosopher Blaine Pascal wrote:

-- "I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time"

(That's "Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte" in the original French.)

Most mashups combine dissimilar musical tracks.  But this Go Home Productions track, which is on the album This Was Pop (2002-2007), combines contemporaneous songs from the same genre -- in this case, the 1966 Beatles' hit single, "Paperback Writer" and the Monkees' hit from the same year, "I'm a Believer."

The two songs mesh together almost perfectly -- the mashup sounds like one song rather than a combination of two songs.  It's easy to imagine the Beatles and the Monkees (or more likely a couple of tribute bands) performing this mashup live.  

Mark Vidler, the brains behind
Go Home Productions

Mark Vidler of Go Home Productions must have a thing about "Paperback Writer."  He producer another mashup that combines the lyrics to "Paperback Writer" with the instrumental track of a different hit single -- the Knack's "My Sharona."  

Here's "My Paperback Sharona":

And here's "Paperback Believer":

Click here and you'll be taken to the Go Home Productions website, where you can download both these songs (and many, many more) for free.  (Don't be afraid, boys and girls -- nothing bad is going to happen to your computer!)