From your Digest
Follow
Worked at International Herald TribuneUpdated 2y
Why didn’t Peter Tork sing the lead on any the Monkees songs?
Question: Why didn’t Peter Tork sing the lead on any the Monkees songs?
Better question: Why didn’t Peter Tork sing the lead on MANY OF the Monkees songs?
Mainly because he was in a group with three better singers.
There’s nothing wrong with Peter’s voice, he was a confident vocalist when called upon (really shining on Shades of Gray, which he sang co-lead on with Davy). He sang lead in his solo career and often performed Auntie Grizelda live with the Monkees.
Micky had and mostly still has a uniquely great voice for a rock singer. I think the original idea from the producers was that Davy would be the lead singer and focal point, but Micky was just so good that they had to give him the lion’s share of the vocals on the hit songs. He was a good sport and sang backup a lot of the time he wasn’t singing lead.
I think Mike was the second-best out of the four. Kirshner didn’t like his country intonations, but rock music has roots in country and Nesmith has a good ear for music. He sounded good when Micky harmonized with him (You Just May Be the One, Door Into Summer) and he was fine on his own (Circle Sky — the live version from Head).
Davy may have had a bit more range than Peter and was a professional singer in musicals since he was a child. As Peter has said, his English accent gave the Monkees a bit of credibility in a musical landscape dominated by the British Invasion groups, especially the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Additionally, since his musical contributions were limited to simple percussion, he wasn’t as busy as the others on songs where they worked together. There were also the songs he did kind of behind the back of the rest of the group, being more amenable to working to Kirshner’s specifications than the other three.
Peter, on the other hand, was ALWAYS busy when they were playing as a band (vs. being backed by professional musicians). He’s primarily depicted as the bassist in the show, but if you look at the credits, he was more often behind the keyboard (Chip Douglas, the producer, played bass a lot of the time on the records). Peter also played guitar and sometimes banjo.
Not a bad singer, just a great musician in a group that was well supplied with vocalists.
Recent Comments