1 of The Monkees Watched The Beatles Record ‘A Day in the Life’

One of The Monkees watched The Beatles create a famous part of “A Day in the Life.” Around the same time, The Monkees released their own song that was similarly avant-garde. Both of the songs are five-star classics.

The Monkees’ Micky Dolenz saw The Beatles’ record ‘A Day in the Life’ at a party

During a 2017 interview with Cleveland Scene, Dolenz explained that The Monkees’ sitcom was “about this band that was trying to be The Beatles. Trying to be famous. But on the television show, we never were [famous]. It was the struggle for success that was part of the theme of the show and I think that endeared it to a lot of kids — kids who were in their garages and basements trying to be famous.”

The connection between the Fab Four and the Prefab Four extended beyond that. Dolenz was present for the recordings of certain tracks of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, including “Good Morning Good Morning.” “And another one was ‘A Day in the Life,'” he recalled. “The big famous piano chord. They threw a massive party and had all these pianos and musicians in the recording studio. I did spend time with all four of them at some point.” The chord at the end of “A Day in the Life” might be the most famous single piano chord in rock ‘n’ roll history.

The Beatles’ song was inspired by 2 news stories

The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono features a 1980 interview. During the interview, John revealed the newspaper stories that inspired “A Day in the Life.” “One was about the Guinness heir who killed himself in a car,” he said. “That was the main headline story. He died in London in a car crash. On the next page was a story about four thousand potholes in the streets of Blackburn, Lancashire, that needed to be filled.” Considering the song’s roots in reality, the name “A Day in the Life” was more than fitting.

John said that Paul McCartney added the line “I’d love to turn you on” to “A Day in the Life.” The “Imagine” singer was very proud of “A Day in the Life.” That’s a big deal, considering that he insulted many Beatles tunes over the course of the interview. He wasn’t even a massive fan of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band as a whole, so his praise of the song is notable.

The Monkees released their own ‘A Day in the Life’

There’s another interesting connection between “A Day in the Life” and The Monkees. One of The Monkees’ best songs is “Randy Scouse Git,” sometimes called “Alternate Title.” The tune has an abrupt chord near its end that is vaguely reminiscent of the end of “A Day in the Life.” Whether The Monkees drew inspiration from The Beatles for “Randy Scouse Git” is unclear. Either way, “A Day in the Life” and “Randy Scouse Git” are two of the best songs from the 1960s because they expanded the boundaries of what popular music could be.

Dolenz did some incredible things with The Monkees and he had the extraordinary privilege of watching the band record “A Day in the Life.”