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TL;DR:

  • A star covered was a huge fan of Davy Jones and covered The Monkees’ “I Wanna Be Free.”
  • The cover was part of Jones’ memorial service.
  • “I Wanna Be Free” was never a single.
Davy Jones near a flag during The Monkees' "I Wanna Be Free" era
The Monkees’ Davy Jones | Michael Ochs Archives / Stringer

A star’s cover of The Monkees‘ “I Wanna Be Free” was played at Davy Jones’ memorial service. Subsequently, the star explained why he decided to cover the song in the first place. Notably, “I Wanna Be Free” appeared on one of the Prefab Four’s most popular albums.

Richard Marx was a fan of Davy Jones and covered The Monkees’ ‘I Wanna Be Free’

In his 2021 book Stories to Tell: A Memoir, “Right Here Waiting for You” singer Richard Marx said he was a Jones fan as a child. He sang “I Wanna Be Free” in school. He met Jones twice: once as a child and another time at an airport in 2010.

Subsequently, Marx discussed his reaction to learning Jones died. “I felt incredibly sad,” Marx wrote. “I certainly didn’t ‘know’ the man, but he’d had an impact on my life, and I felt grateful to have met him those two times, decades in between.”

How Richard Marx decided to pay tribute to The Monkees’ Davy Jones

Marx revealed how he responded to Jones’ death. “I was already quite active on social media by this point and decided I wanted to comment on his passing,” he said. “I wrote a blog telling the story of meeting him at five, and again all those years later. I also felt I wanted to pay tribute to him musically.

“So I grabbed an acoustic guitar, turned on the camera on my laptop, and sang ‘I Wanna Be Free’ for the first time since that morning in kindergarten,” he added. “I had my social media team post the video, along with the blog, that afternoon. A week later, Davy’s family held a memorial service for him, and during the program, they played my video on a huge screen at the church.”

Related

The Monkees’ Songwriter Loved Richard Marx’s Cover of ‘I Wanna Be Free’

How ‘I Wanna Be Free’ performed in the United States and the United Kingdom

“I Wanna Be Free” was never released as a single, so it never charted on the Billboard Hot 100. The Monkees included the song on their self-titled album. The Monkees reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for 13 weeks and stayed on the chart for a total of 102 weeks.

According to The Official Charts Company, “I Wanna Be Free” didn’t chart in the United Kingdom either. On the other hand. The Monkees reached No. 1 in the U.K. for seven weeks and stayed on the chart for a total of 37 weeks.

“I Wanna Be Free” is a famous album track and it played a role in Jones’ memorial service.

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