Why The Monkees’ Micky Dolenz Covered 1 Song From The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’
TL;DR:
- The Monkees’ Micky Dolenz has a connection to The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
- He covered one of the songs from the album.
- Dolenz significantly altered the track he covered.
The Monkees‘ Micky Dolenz covered a song from The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Dolenz said he was there when The Beatles recorded the original track. In addition, Dolenz revealed he altered the original song when he covered it.
The Monkees’ Micky Dolenz was there during the recording of songs from The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’
During a 2019 interview with Westword, Dolenz discussed his relationship with Paul McCartney. “We had dinner and hung out and talked,” Dolenz recalled. “He invited me down to Abbey Road Studios.”
Dolenz was there for a piece of Beatles history. “I was there when they were tracking ‘Good Morning Good Morning,'” he recalled. “Then I was back for a couple of other things and for the big Sgt. Pepper’s finale.”
How The Monkees’ Micky Dolenz changed The Beatles’ ‘Good Morning Good Morning’ when he covered it
During an interview with Music Radar from 2012, Dolenz discussed his album Remember, which includes a cover of “Good Morning Good Morning.” “All the songs on the album have a story behind them, but I was at that Beatles session, so it got burned into my neural pathways,” he said. “Eventually, on an episode of The Monkees, I got them to give me the rights to let me play the song on the show, which was unheard of at the time.”
Dolenz said his cover of “Good Morning Good Morning” altered the original. “Over the years, I sort of came up with this different take on it,” he said. “But I switched the time signatures around. On the original, the verses are in 4/4 and the middle eight is in triplets. I turned it around so that the verses are in triplets and the middle eight is in 4/4.”
How ‘Sgt. Pepper’ and ‘Good Morning Good Morning’ performed in the charts in the United States and the United Kingdom
“Good Morning Good Morning” was not a single in the United States, so it did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100. The song’s parent album, Sgt. Pepper, was a much bigger hit. The album was No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for 15 weeks, staying on the chart for 233 weeks in total. Of The Beatles’ studio albums, only Abbey Road was more popular on the Billboard 200.
According to The Official Charts Company, “Good Morning Good Morning” did not chart in the United Kingdom either. Meanwhile, Sgt. Pepper was a massive hit in the U.K. There, the album was No. 1 for 28 weeks, lasting on the chart for 277 weeks altogether.
“Good Morning Good Morning” was not a hit — but it has an interesting connection to Dolenz.
