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TL;DR:

  • Micky Dolenz remade one of The Monkees’ songs with help from Mike Nesmith’s son.
  • Dolenz’s cover added Eastern instrumentation to the track.
  • Dolenz compared his remake to the music of Ravi Shankar.
The Monkees' Micky Dolenz with a guitar
The Monkees’ Micky Dolenz | Michael Putland / Contributor

Micky Dolenz recorded one of The Monkees‘ songs using Eastern instrumentation. The cover was for a tribute album honoring the work of Mike Nesmith. Subsequently, Dolenz said the album was inspired by the name of one of Harry Nilsson’s albums.

How Harry Nilsson inspired an album made by The Monkees’ Micky Dolenz

During a 2021 interview with Rock Cellar Magazine, Dolenz discussed his album Dolenz Sings Nesmith. Dolenz said his friend Nilsson recorded an album called Nilsson Sings Newman. Inspired by the album, Dolenz decided to record an album called Dolenz Sings Nesmith. He recruited Mike Nesmith’s son, Christian, to work on the album. Dolenz said he knew Christian from the time Christian was in a cradle.

Micky Dolenz changed 1 of The Monkees’ songs after singing it the same way for 50 years

Dolenz discussed the creation of the album. “We talked about it extensively,” he said. “We got [manager] Andrew Sandoval involved in A&R and I stepped back. I made some suggestions but I said, ‘Look, I can’t imagine how to do ‘Circle Sky‘ in any other way. For 50 years I’ve been singing that song like that.’ Christian came up with a phenomenal re-envisioning of that song.”

The new version of “Circle Sky” includes Eastern instrumentation. “Oh boy, I’m just blown away,” Dolenz said. “It speaks to the song and it speaks to the movie Head that we made that the song was in. And that period, with Ravi Shankar. It just really made sense. He did that with so many of the tunes.”

Dolenz gave fans more insight into Dolenz Sings Nesmith. “We had talked about a lot of different songs and none of us wanted to do a karaoke kind of cover band version of his material,” he said. “We started out with a long list, like 40 tunes, and cut it down. Basically, I left it to Christian and Andrew to make the final song choices.”

How the song performed on the charts in the United States and the United Kingdom

“Circle Sky” was not a single, so it never charted on the Billboard Hot 100. The tune appeared on the soundtrack of the movie Head, which peaked at No. 45 on the Billboard 200 and stayed on the chart for 15 weeks. The Head soundtrack became The Monkees’ first album not to hit the top 10 in the United States.

According to The Official Charts Company, “Circle Sky” never charted in the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, Head did not chart there. A version of “Circle Sky” appeared on the compilation album Monkeemania (The Very Best of the Monkees), which hit No. 70 in the U.K. and remained on the chart for two weeks.

“Circle Sky” was not one of the Prefab Four’s most popular songs but Dolenz felt it was worth a second look.

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