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TL;DR:

  • Jimmy Webb said one of The Monkees’ songs influenced him during his early career.
  • He sang it in a melody with one of The Everly Brothers’ songs that inspired him.
  • The Prefab Four song in question appeared on one of the group’s hit albums.
The Monkees' Mike Nesmith, Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, and Peter Tork playing songs
The Monkees’ Mike Nesmith, Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, and Peter Tork | Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Image

The Monkees’ songs weren’t always respected in the 1960s. Despite this, country singer Jimmy Webb held one Prefab Four song in high regard. He once sang it in a melody with another classic song by The Everly Brothers.

1 of the Prefab Four’s songwriters called a Jim Webb song a ‘masterpiece’

Boyce & Hart was a songwriting team composed of Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart. Together, they wrote some of The Monkees’ most famous songs. These tracks included “Last Train to Clarksville,” “(Theme from) The Monkees,” and “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone.”

In his 2015 book Psychedelic Bubble Gum: Boyce & Hart, The Monkees, and Turning Mayhem Into Miracles, Hart discussed meeting Webb. “He invited Boyce and me to his New Year’s Eve party in 1967, and before we left he took us upstairs and played us an unreleased tape of his masterpiece, ‘MacArthur Park,'” Hart wrote.

Jimmy Webb performed one of The Monkees’ songs in a medley with 1 of The Everly Brothers’ songs

Later that night, Hart and his date, Claudia Jennings, watched Webb sing. “But halfway into this date night, as Claudia and I watched, Jimmy introduced a medley of two songs that he had not written himself,” Hart remembered. “He told his audience of fans and music business luminaries that these pieces had been an inspiration to him early on, and that he considered them to be two of the greatest songs of all-time. 

“The first was The Everly Brothers’ classic, ‘Let It Be Me,'” Hart recalled. “The second was ‘I Wanna Be Free‘ by Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart. It was an unexpected and appreciated honor, but more importantly, it topped off a perfect second date with a girl who, until now, hadn’t known a lot about what I did for a living.”

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How The Monkees’ ‘I Wanna Be Free’ performed on the charts in the United States and the United Kingdom

“I Wanna Be Free” did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100. It appeared on the Prefab Four’s debut album, The Monkees. That album topped the Billboard 200 for 13 weeks, remaining on the chart for 102 weeks in total.

According to The Official Charts Company, “I Wanna Be Free” did not chart in the United Kingdom either. Meanwhile, The Monkees was No. 1 in the U.K. for seven weeks. The album lasted 37 weeks on the chart altogether.

“I Wanna Be Free” wasn’t a hit — but Webb held it in high esteem.

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