Why Davy Jones Never Sang the Sequel to The Monkees’ ‘I Wanna Be Free’
The Monkees are most known for their upbeat pop and rock tunes, however, they also recorded great ballads. One of The Monkees’ most famous ballads is “I Wanna Be Free.” Peter Tork wrote a follow-up to that song for Davy Jones. Here’s why Jones never sang that song.
Peter Tork reveals why Davy Jones never recorded the sequel to The Monkees’ ‘I Wanna Be Free’
“I Wanna Be Free” is one of the songs The Monkees sang on their 1960s sitcom. For their 50th anniversary, the group released an album called Good Times! Good Times! includes a song called “Little Girl,” not to be confused with the song of the same name from The Monkees’ earlier album The Monkees Present Micky, David, Michael. The Good Times! track “Little Girl” has a special connection to “I Wanna Be Free.”
“I wrote that song [‘Little Girl’] a while ago,” Peter Tork told Rock Cellar Magazine. “Actually, I had thought of it as the sequel to ‘I Wanna Be Free’ for Davy. I had that song in mind for Davy to be singing it and in fact, Davy liked it a lot. He thought it was a great song and we just never got around to putting that song down in the studio.”
Tork added more about why Jones never recorded the song. “I don’t know why; just one thing got in the way of another,” Tork said. “I’m a little lackadaisical about a lot of stuff but I’m glad we got it together at the end finally. For that song, I was in the band playing guitar with Adam on bass and his friends on guitar and drums…. But I actually had hopes of Davy singing it and of course, sadly, that’s not going to happen.” By the time The Monkees released Good Times!, Jones had died.
How The Monkees’ ‘I Wanna Be Free’ performed compared to ‘Little Girl’
This raises an interesting question: How did “I Wanna Be Free” perform compared to “Little Girl?” “I Wanna Be Free” didn’t hit the Billboard Hot 100 even though it was a single. However, the song’s parent album, The Monkees, reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
While Jones never sang “Little Girl” the song’s parent album, Good Times!, performed well — but not as well as The Monkees. However, Good Times! reached No. 14 on the Billboard 200. “Little Girl” wasn’t a single and it didn’t chart on the Billboard Hot 100.
How The Monkees’ Mickey Dolenz responded to the performance of ‘Good Times!’
According to Rolling Stone, Monkees member Mickey Dolenz was impressed with Good Time!’s performance. He noted the Monkees were popular in the 1960 and still found success in the 2010s. He said this was like opera singer Enrico Caruso, who was popular in the 1910s, having a hit in the 1960s. While Jones didn’t record “Little Girl,” the song still found an audience.
