"The 100 Greatest No. 1's of All Time"
from: BBC Channel 4, January 6, 2001
transcibed by Steve Bradley
This marathon 4 hour programme was the result of votes cast by people in the music industry as well as around 100,000 ordinary members of the British public. The programme ran down the top 100 hits in reverse order, the only criteria being that it had to have been a UK No 1 single. I expected 'I'm A Believer' to feature early on - that is, at the lower end of the 100 - as in the UK the Monkees profile is currently low, and their reputation with the public generally is as simply a 'manufactured band for TV' when of course we know there was more to them than that!
I was pleased, then, that Micky didn't appear on the programme until we had reached number 17, the respectable placing in this poll for the Monkees only UK chart-topper. "OK, ready, everybody?" announced an excited Micky, "here they come!" he yelled, sticking his fingers in his ears as 60's footage started of the boys playing the song. It was the 'performance' (gold shirts) rather than a 'romp'.
"The Monkees wasn't a band, the Monkees was a television show about a band. An imaginary band that didn't exist" explained Micky, "and still doesn't exist". It seems to me that whenever Micky is working with the Monkees, he is proud of the group, but when he is pursuing other projects, he dismisses it. Accompanied now by a creative compilation of 'romp' footage, Micky went on. "The Monkees was almost like a musical on television, cast in much the same way" he suggested. "It was film tests, vocal tests…..it went on and on and on…".
On filming the series, Micky recalled with a smile that "We'd come out of our dressing room after just partying! Eight o'clock in the morning, we're already going 'Hey, what's happening! Alright, party! Camera! Hi, camera!' " as he looks directly into the camera, grinning.
Moving on to the recordings, Micky remembered that he would be "Going out of sessions, like the 'I'm A Believer' sessions, and humming the songs, which is always a good sign". Accompanied by continuing film from the romps and the opening titles, Micky told us "I did so much recording so quickly and I listen back now, to like even 'I'm A Believer' and I go 'Oh my God!' - it was probably two o'clock in the morning. My voice is cracking on the high notes. God, that vocal sucks!" You do yourself a disservice, Micky, and I'm sure the 10 million or so who bought the record would agree.
Micky concluded his reminiscence of the classic hit. "This was an imaginary group that, fortunately I think, in the long run, we actually had the goods to back it up". Just when you though you had escaped from the old Star Trek joke…"You know, the Monkees becoming a real band, I've often said, is like Leonard Nimoy really becoming a Vulcan".
The song and the performance (especially Micky's vocal) are magnificent, and it was refreshing to see it do so well in a nationwide poll, 34 years after it's initial success. By the way, The Beatles 'Hey Jude' was number 3, Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' at 2, and John Lennon's beautiful 'Imagine' was voted the best UK No 1 of all time.
