The Monkees’ Final №1: ‘Daydream Believer’
‘100 Greatest 60s Pop Songs’ Book Excerpt
“Daydream Believer” was written by folksinger John Stewart while still a member of the Kingston Trio. In 1967, the song became the Monkees’ last №1 hit.
“I remember writing ‘Daydream Believer’ very clearly,” Stewart said in American Songwriter.
“For some reason, I was writing songs all day, every day. It was part of a trilogy, a suburban trilogy. I remember going to bed thinking, ‘What a wasted day — all I’ve done is daydream.’ And from there I wrote the whole song.
“I never thought it was one of my best songs. Not at all.”
“This comes from what I called the ‘mixed-mode’ period,” Peter Tork of the Monkees told Rolling Stone.
“The first one was the Don Kirshner mode where he oversaw the records and everything was under his control. Then we did Headquarters where it was just us. ‘Mixed’ was us and some pros in the studio.
“With ‘Daydream Believer,’ I was on the piano and I came up with this opening lick which I thought was just sparklingly original. When you play it today, everyone thinks of ‘Daydream Believer.’
“Then there’s the line, ‘What can it mean to a daydream believer and a homecoming queen.’ It doesn’t go right in your face, but when you think about it you figure it out.
“You’re like, ‘Okay, the guy is in a workaday world and he’s got his head in the clouds. His girlfriend was a homecoming queen, but they’re still scratching.’ You don’t get all that until you think about it for a long time.
“Davy sings this one, and he was such a talented guy and a good actor. He was probably the best actor among us. He probably had the best musical mind, too. The best brain and maybe the best heart.”
RCA Records annoyed Stewart when it insisted on changing a word in the lyrics.
“When I heard the Monkees do it,” said Stewart, “I said, ‘My God! The line was supposed to be, “You once thought of me as a white knight on his steed / Now you know how funky life can be.” You know, after the wedding how things can get funky?
“And then Davy sings, ‘Now you know how happy life can be.’ The record company wouldn’t let them say ‘funky.’”
“There was no way I was going to sing ‘funky,’” claimed Jones. “In the ’60s, that was nearly a swear word. I was supposed to be a ‘fresh face’ for the kids.”
“I’m asked to get up in karaoke bars,” Jones told E! News in 2012, “and I’ve sung ‘Daydream Believer’ because it pleases the 12 or 15 people that are there.
“Why shouldn’t I? I sing it better than anybody else. I’ll give them the best. Let them hear the one who did it first. It doesn’t matter if there’s 10 people or 10,000 people, my performance is the same. I put it right out there.”
Frank Mastropolo is the author of 100 Greatest 60s Pop Songs, one of the Greatest Performances series. For more on on latest projects, visit Edgar Street Books.
