You better ‘Believe’ it: The facts about the song “I’m a Believer” for a younger generation.

             When I mention the song “I’m a Believer”, what do you think of first? If you said the 2001 movie “Shrek” then you are not alone. Some people from my generation and younger will remember this being sung by Smash Mouth for the aforementioned film, but you’d be wrong. Yes, they did cover the song. Rewind back to 1966, nearly five decades ago, to a band who originally was known for the, at the time number one hit according to Billboard when the 45rpm single was released on November 21, 1966 ("I'm a Believer.").

A photo of an original 1967 Colgems pressing of  "More of the Monkees

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            Written by Neil Diamond, who was a recognized song writer at that time, the song was performed by the band The Monkees for their second album, More of the Monkees ("I'm a Believer."). The song was recorded over a period of two days on October 15^th and 23^rd 1966 (Sandoval 292). Subsequently this song has been one of The Monkees staples at their performances and accredited to their name. Neil Diamond also sung this song and was released on his 1967 album Just for You. Since then Neil has placed this song on three different albums including one in 1979 where he included new lyrics (“I'm a Believer.”). I’ve never heard that version, but will check it out.  The Monkees also perform this song at most of their concerts including the summer tour of 2001 ("The Monkees: Live Summer Tour (2002) (V)) (The Monkees: Live Summer Tour).

          

Close up of Colgems release. Now this album can be found on Rhino records.

 I will get more into who The Monkees are in my next article. I have been a fan of them for many years and had the pleasure to meet one member in 2011 and to see the others in concert in the summer of 2013. But that I will get into more next time. Hope you are enjoying my blog thus far. Stay tuned for more groovy articles.

Side 2

Works Cited

"I'm a Believer." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 31 Jan. 2015. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.

"The Monkees: Live Summer Tour (2002) (V)." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.

The Monkees: Live Summer Tour. Perf. Dolenz, Mickey; Jones, Davy; Tork, Peter. WIN Media, 2002. DVD.

Sandoval, Andrew. "Songography." The Monkees: The Day-by-day Story of the '60s TV Pop Sensation. San Diego: Thunder Bay, 2005. 292. Print.