One Of The Monkees Was Not Credited For His Piano Intro To ‘Daydream Believer’

The music of The Monkees — the group consisting of four actors in a comic sitcom turned musicians — topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Made up of Davy Jones, Peter Tork, Mike Nesmith, and Micky Dolenz, the group released their album The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees in 1967, with “Daydream Believer,” a single from that album, turning out to be one of their most successful tracks.

The piano intro of “Daydream Believer” is so unique every fan would recognize the song anywhere it’s heard. Peter Tork, who played bass, created that piano intro to the song. However, John Stewart, who was the composer, received sole credit, excluding Peter’s contribution.

No Credit for the intro of The Monkees’ ‘Daydream Believer’

Tork revealed in a 2016 interview that he created the piano intro to the hit song. “With ‘Daydream Believer’ I was on the piano and I came up with this opening lick, which I thought was just sparklingly original. When you play it today, everyone thinks of ‘Daydream Believer.'”

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The song, which was described as “mixed-mode” by Tork, was supervised by professionals like rock music producer Donald Kirshner. Tork says in an interview with Rolling Stone, “This comes from what I called the ‘mixed-mode’ period. The first one was the Don Kirshner mode where he oversaw the records and everything was under his control. Then we did Headquarters where it was just us. ‘Mixed’ was us and some pros in the studio.”

The lyrics, the piano intro by Tork, and the talents of the band members led to the success of the song.

The Monkees were more successful than The Beatles in 1967

The Monkees started as a band in a television series imitating The Beatles, done in the style of the Fab Four’s 1964 film A Hard Day’s Night. They were known as the “Wannabe Beatles” or “The Pre-Fab Four” before becoming a real musical group outside the show.

In 1967, they were actually more successful than The Beatles as they sold over 35 million albums, while “Daydream Believer” remained number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for four weeks with a total of 16 weeks on the chart. The album The Birds, the Bees & The Monkees was, without doubt, a banger as it reached number 3 on the Billboard 200 and remained on the chart for 50 weeks.

The boy band also released top songs like “I’m a Believer,” “Last Train to Clarksville” and “Pleasant Valley Sunday.”  Long after the song’s release, Anne Murray, a now-retired Canadian singer, did a cover of it in 1979, with “Daydream Believer” becoming so popular again that it was number 12 on the Billboard chart for 17 weeks.

With Davy Jones, Peter Tork, and Mike Nesmith passing, Micky Dolenz remains the only surviving member of the iconic rock and pop band group.