And amazingly enough they produced beloved songs that are on the classic rock rotation to this day. Heck, the Archies, as artificial a group as ever quasi-existed, managed the same feat. It was the Sixties, man!
Ron Dante, the lead singer of the Archies, had in October 1969 two songs in the top ten. “Sugar, Sugar,” the Archies mega-super-hit, and “Tracy” by the non-band the Cuff Links. He later produced and sang on nine Barry Manilow albums.
Here’s the fact that blows me away. George Plimpton made Dante the publisher of his super-erudite literary magazine, The Paris Review. While he was Manilow’s producer.
The ultimate crossover artist.
The beatles , aka John did so on purpose.
However, the Archies never appeared live - altho the lead singer did perform a few of their songs live. Ron Dante. Maybe there was a band by that name on Riverdale also?
I live a block away from a Penny Nichols.
D&D sourcebooks count as “creative works”, right? I was just looking for something in the 3rd edition Tome of Magic, and came across this line:
Possibly the most famous character in all of D&D, Drizz’t Do’Urden, is… a gnoll hunter.
Famed for his war cry, “Be vewy quiet. I’m hunting gnolls. Heh heh heh.”
The Monkees was not only a hut, but it also won an Emmy for best comedy series.
And Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork were working musicians when they were cast. Nesmith had already written “Different Drum,” which became a hit for the Stone Ponies (with Linda Ronstadt).
Davy Jones and Mickey Dolenz were primarily actors, though Jones had appeared on stage in Oliver.
Stephen Stills auditioned for a role, but was turned down due to his appearance.
And now the number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 is “Golden,” a song by a fake band from an animated film.
You know, journeyman songwriters and session musicians are people, too. They deserve the occasional hit.
“The Archies” were only the most prominent and successful of the anonymous vocalists who did the rock songs for several Saturday morning animated cartoons back in the day. I wonder if anyone’s researched those.
I just found out that Cheryl Ladd (billed under the name Cherie Moor) was the singing voice for Melody of Josie and the Pussycats.
AI summary:
Tony Burrows, a British session singer, is notable for having his vocals appear on four UK number-one singles in 1970, all under different band names: “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)” with Edison Lighthouse, “My Baby Loves Lovin’” with White Plains, “Gimme Dat Ding” with The Pipkins, and “United We Stand” with Brotherhood of Man. He also sang lead on “Beach Baby” by The First Class, which reached #4 in the US.
And he kept on keeping on.
In today’s scripture reading at church, the prophet Jeremiah was imprisoned in a cistern, where he sank into the mud.
Explains why a bullfrog would be named after him.
But it does not explain why a bullfrog would have some wine.
Nitpicking here and please correct me if I’m wrong.
Mickey Dolenz was an actor who could sing.
Davy Jones was a singer who in fact was prominent in the cast of Oliver! on the Ed Sullivan Show, coincidentally the same night as The Beatles first appearance.
Mike Nesmith was a performing musician and composer well before The Monkees were concocted.
Peter Tork was also a performing musician (voice, guitar, keyboards) who was recommended for the Monkees by his housemate Steven Stills.
The only one of the four who learned his instrument as the show went on was Mickey.
Edit to add: RealityChuck already covered this. I tip my hat.
Knowing that Hoyt Axton’s original first line was ‘Jeremiah was a prophet’ the lyric’s Christian motifs, starting with the title, become more obvious.
If Jeremiah was a prophet, then the follow up lines about never understanding a word he said but hanging out with him because you want to drink his wine seems like a condemnation of Christians.
Or Hoyt Axton writing a song about how he isn’t that great of a Christian given the other lines.
But, again, note that the Monkees were the result of the creation of a television show. The Beatles were a group of musicians who got together. The four members of the Monkees had various talents that caused them to be chosen for the television show. It was not their choice to work to create the group. It was the choice of the creators of the television show.
Have you seen Head, the Monkees movie? I always felt that Rafaelson was trying to pretend that he was a serious artist and had nothing to do with the creation of the tv series.