Skip to main content

TL;DR:

  • The Monkees’ Micky Dolenz said a lot of bands ripped off The Beatles.
  • He felt the Fab Four’s style wasn’t unique.
  • Dolenz discussed how sailors and GIs helped inspire The Beatles’ music.
The Beatles in black-and-white
The Beatles | CBS Photo Archive / Contributor

The Monkees‘ Micky Dolenz discussed his feelings on The Beatles’ sound. He felt some of the other bands from the 1960s were very similar. In the same vein, he said the Fab Four drew influence from earlier American rock artists.

The Monkees’ Micky Dolenz named other bands who were similar to The Beatles’ sound

During a 2020 interview with Boca, the interviewer told Dolenz many bands ripped off The Beatles’ sound. “Well, that’s a good point, but The Beatles were not just responsible for that sound,” he said. “That was called the merseybeat, and if you go back and look, there were other legitimate bands, like the Dave Clark Five, like Herman’s Hermits. That was a sound that was percolating out of Liverpool and Manchester.” For context, the Dave Clark Five got their start before The Beatles while Herman’s Hermits formed after The Beatles did.

“And if you go back and look at the history, it was post-World War II England, which had been brutalized during the war,” he added. “And if you’ve seen [Cirque du Soleil’s Beatles show] Love, in Las Vegas, they dramatize that,” he added. “Liverpool was a war zone. It had been essentially decimated by Nazi bombings, because it was one of the centers of armaments production.”

The Monkees’ singer discussed how America inspired The Beatles’ sound

Dolenz further discussed The Beatles’ cultural context. “So these guys in the late ’50s, early ’60s, grew up in a disaster area,” he said. “And they got rock ‘n’ roll music the only way they could, from American GIs and navy sailors who would dock in Liverpool with their 45s from the States, of Buddy Holly, for instance.”

Dolenz said The Beatles admitted they were into American rock ‘n’ roll and drew influence from Buddy Holly. He felt the Fab Four combined merseybeat with American rock ‘n’ roll to create their sound.

The 2015 book Psychedelic Bubble Gum: Boyce & Hart, The Monkees, and Turning Mayhem Into Miracles was written by The Monkees’ songwriter, Bobby Hart. Hart noted The Beatles, the Dave Clark Five, and Herman’s Hermits were all influences on The Monkees. This showed the cycle of influence kept going.

John Lennon said the same thing as Micky Dolenz when discussing rock ‘n’ roll

The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono contains an interview from 1980. In it, John discussed The Beatles’ influences. Like Dolenz, he said rock ‘n’ roll paved the way for The Beatles. 

In addition, John said there would be no Beatles without Elvis Presley and there would be no Elvis without Johnnie Ray. He said all music is derivative because there are only so many notes. John revealed fans told him the Bee Gees regurgitated The Beatles’ music, but he liked the Bee Gees anyway.

The Beatles are one of the greatest bands ever, even if Dolenz felt they were similar to the Dave Clark Five.

Best in Entertainment