It was 53 years ago Sunday (June 14th, 1967) that the Monkees began recording their third and final Number One hit, “Daydream Believer.” The song, which was tracked during the group's sessions for Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd., was held off the album and released separately as a single. “Daydream Believer” was written by the late John Stewart, who had written several songs for the Kingston Trio, and at that time was performing with future superstar John Denver. Shortly after the song's release in November 1967, Stewart became the official musician of the Democratic National Committee, which involved traveling with Senator Robert Kennedy during his brief 1968 Presidential campaign.
The late-Davy Jones, who sang lead on the track, later admitted to originally hating the song, and suggested that it was better suited to his bandmate Micky Dolenz. Shortly before his death in 2012, Jones said that throughout the group's career, bandmate Peter Tork always encouraged him musically: “I'm a great fan of Peter's, y'know? He told me and instilled in me that I was a musician. I am a musician. I keep a good beat. I've got perfect pitch.”
Micky Dolenz told us he's amazed at how different the history of the Monkees is from all their late-'60s peers: “There was in a way, two Monkee bands; One was the cast of the television show that the producers had cast, and that were singing and paying on a lot of the early stuff — but we had no control over what was going to be recorded. And then, after we fought for the right to do the music and did Headquarters — that was the other Monkees group. That was like, the Monkees group that was just us singing and writing and playing the songs that we wanted. It's an unusual story, y'know, it's a very strange story.”
