45 min listen
Ep. 38 - BOBBY HART ("Last Train to Clarksville")
Ep. 38 - BOBBY HART ("Last Train to Clarksville")
ratings:
Length:
55 minutes
Released:
Jun 14, 2016
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
The legendary songwriting team of Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart found early success with songs such as “Lazy Elsie Molly,” which was a Top 10 R&B hit for Chubby Checker, “Come a Little Bit Closer,” which was a Top 5 pop hit for Jay & The Americans, and the instrumental theme song for the long-running soap opera, Days of Our Lives. The pair are best known, however, for writing and producing more than 20 songs for The Monkees, including “Last Train to Clarksville,” “(Theme From) The Monkees,” “I Wanna Be Free,” “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone,” “She,” “Words,” and “Valleri.” As artists, the Grammy nominated duo found success in the late 1960s with the self-penned Top 40 hits “Out & About,” “I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight,” and “Alice Long (You’re Still My Favorite Girlfriend).” Bobby Hart wrote a number of hit singles apart from Tommy Boyce, including “Hurt So Bad,” which was a hit for Little Anthony & The Imperials in 1965 before finding subsequent chart success with the Letterman, Jackie DeShannon, and Linda Ronstadt, who made it a Top 10 pop hit in 1980. He also wrote Helen Reddy’s #1 single “Keep on Singing,” as well as Lane Brody’s #15 country hit “Over You,” which was included in the film Tender Mercies and earned Bobby Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations in 1983. He continued to score on the R&B and pop charts into the 1980s with New Edition’s “My Secret” and Robbie Nevil’s “Dominoes.” Most recently, the Monkees recorded Boyce & Hart’s “Whatever’s Right” on their critically acclaimed 2016 comeback album, Good Times. In 2015 Bobby published his autobiography, Psychedelic Bubble Gum: Boyce & Hart, The Monkees, and Turning Mayhem into Miracles.
Released:
Jun 14, 2016
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Ep. 5 - JEFF SILBAR ("Wind Beneath My Wings"): Though best known as the Grammy-winning co-writer of the contemporary standard “Wind Beneath My Wings,” Jeff Silbar has appeared in the Top 40 on Billboard’s Pop, Country, and Adult Contemporary charts a total of 28 times. With deep roots as both a songwriter and a music publisher in Nashville and Los Angeles, his songs have been recorded by a diverse range of artists, including John Cougar Mellencamp, Fleetwood Mac, Kenny Rogers, Alabama, Dolly Parton, Gregg Allman, Leon Russell, Lou Rawls, Reba McEntire, Willie Nelson, and many others. In addition to winning Song of the Year awards from the Academy of Country Music, the Country Music Association, and the Recording Academy, he has received more than thirty ASCAP performance awards. by Songcraft: Spotlight on Songwriters