Mike Nesmith Joked The Monkees Were Bigger Than The Beatles Even Though He Couldn’t Play Guitar
The Monkees‘ Mike Nesmith joked his band was bigger than The Beatles even though he couldn’t play the guitar. Subsequently, a songwriter who knew Nesmith said this comment was false. Notably, The Monkees’ songs and The Beatles’ songs performed very differently on the singles chart in the United States.
Mike Nesmith joked that it was ‘unbelievable’ that The Monkees were more popular than The Beatles
Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart co-wrote The Monkees’ first No. 1 single “Last Train to Clarksville.” In his 2015 book Psychedelic Bubble Gum: Boyce & Hart, The Monkees, and Turning Mayhem Into Miracles, Hart discussed bumping into Nesmith with Boyce. “At the end of 1966, on the heels of their first No. 1 record and hit TV show, The Monkees, had been booked for their first in-person concerts,” he wrote.
“We ran into Michael Nesmith at Western Studios a couple of days after they had returned from their dress rehearsal concert in Honolulu,” he added. “When we asked him how it had gone, Michael said ‘Unbelievable! We’re bigger than The Beatles, and I can’t even play the guitar.’
“It was classic Nesmith, superiority and modesty in the same sentence,” Hart continued. “In fact, he played the guitar very well.”
Bobby Hart said the Fab Four’s fans didn’t prepare him for the Prefab Four’s fans
After seeing The Monkees live, Hart compared the performance to The Beatles’ appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and at Madison Square Garden. He discussed the Fab Four’s fans to the Prefab Four’s fans.
“The memory of those black-and-white film clips had failed to prepare me for the incredible shock to my nervous system from the ear-piercing, high-pitched roar that began the moment The Monkees were introduced,” Hart wrote. “It was coming from thousands of young girls, wild with uncontrolled anticipation.” He felt The Monkees’ fans exhibited something more than regular hysteria.
How The Monkees’ songs and The Beatles’ songs performed on the pop charts in the United States
In total, The Monkees released three singles that topped the Billboard Hot 100. The songs were “Last Train to Clarksville,” “I’m a Believer,” and “Daydream Believer.”
On the other hand, 20 Beatles singles topped the Billboard Hot 100. The songs in question were “Hey Jude,” “Come Together/Something,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “She Loves You,” “Let It Be,” “Love Me Do,” “Help!,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “We Can Work It Out,” “Get Back,” “All You Need Is Love,” “Yesterday,” “Ticket to Ride,” “Hello, Goodbye,” “I Feel Fine,” “The Long and Winding Road/For You Blue,” “Penny Lane,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Paperback Writer,” and “Eight Days a Week.”
The Monkees were popular even if they weren’t as popular on the singles chart as The Beatles.
