How The Monkees’ Theme Song Was Supposed to Make Them Seem Like the Marx Brothers

The Monkees‘ theme song is one of the most famous theme songs from the 1960s. The co-writer of the track explained he wanted it to remind listeners of the Marx Brothers. Subsequently, the tune appeared on a massively successful album.

A pair of songwriters wanted to make The Monkees seem like the Marx Brothers and like hippies

Bobby Hart and Tommy Boyce co-wrote many Prefab Four songs, including “Last Train to Clarksville” and “I Wanna Be Free.” In his 2015 book Psychedelic Bubble Gum: Boyce & Hart, The Monkees, and Turning Mayhem Into Miracles, Hart discussed “(Theme From) The Monkees.” “I can’t say that we consciously tailored every line to accomplish our predetermined list of goals, but intuitively we had captured the elements that we thought were important,” he wrote. 

Hart said the theme song captured the group’s image, which was similar to that of the Marx Brothers. Boyce & Hart wanted the line “People say we monkey around” to remind people of the Marx Brothers. Notably, the Marx Brothers starred in a comedy called Monkey Business. In addition, the theme song made the band look like inoffensive hippies and identified them with contemporary youth culture. Finally, the song plugged the band’s live performances. 

Boyce & Hart showed The Monkees’ theme song to the Prefab Four’s creators

Boyce & Hart played the track for the Prefab Four’s creators, Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson. “When we played our rough versions of the songs for the television show’s producers, Burt and Bob both smiled and told us they were very pleased,” Hart recalled. “We stayed in touch with them, working together for nearly a year as they developed their concept and we fine-tuned our music.” 

Hart explained what Boyce & Hart did next. “In the weeks that followed, we weren’t just busy creating the songs that were needed for the pilot show, we confidently plunged ahead with writing new material for a first Monkees album,” he said. “We also spent a lot of time preparing ourselves to take full advantage of what we viewed as the biggest opportunity to have yet come our way, producing records for a potential hit group with the power of television behind them.”

How the theme song performed on the pop charts in the United States and the United Kingdom

“(Theme From) The Monkees wasn’t a single in the United States, so it did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100. The track appeared on the album The Monkees. The album topped the Billboard 200 for 13 weeks, remaining on the chart for 102 weeks.

The Official Charts Company reports “(Theme From) The Monkees” did not chart in the United Kingdom either. The group’s first album became far more popular there. It topped the U.K. chart for seven weeks and stayed on the chart for 37 weeks in total.

Schneider and Rafelson liked The Monkees’ theme song — and it seems television audiences liked it as well.