Recently the e-mail letter that I subscribe to from Kent Kotal / The60sShop@aol.com told the true story on the creation of the Monkees song Valleri. If any parties are interested in signing up for their FORGOTTEN HITS Mailing List, then drop them a line. They've got some GREAT features coming up like THE TOP 200 BIGGEST TWO-SIDED HITS OF ALL TIME, an exclusive interview with PETER NOONE of HERMAN'S HERMITS and a special series spotlighting their readers' choices for their FAVORITE, FORGOTTEN B-SIDES.
Kent says that "For the record, the story behind THE MONKEES' song VALLERI ran as part of our 3-week series spotlighting THE SONGS OF TOMMY BOYCE AND BOBBY HART, which first ran back in late 2004. Since then, it has been sent out FOUR MORE TIMES by way of special mailing lists ... so if any of your readers would like to sign up for a special rerun series, let me know that as well. I have no specific rerun dates yet but figure that audience demand will dictate just how soon this will happen."
If any of you want to subscribe write to them at The60sshop@aol.com
Now for your reading pleasure with consent from the good folks at Forgotten Hits, the real story on the creation of that Monkees hit song Valleri.
In his book HOW TO WRITE A HIT SONG...AND SELL IT, TOMMY BOYCE tells a funny, interesting story revolving around one of THE MONKEES' last big hits.
THE MONKEES were always being supplied new musical material from a virtual who's who of songwriters: NEIL DIAMOND, GERRY GOFFIN and CAROLE KING, NILSSON, NEIL SEDAKA and DAVID GATES (later of BREAD) all had their songs recorded by the band in the first couple of years. In addition, MICKY DOLENZ, DAVY JONES, PETER TORK and, most frequently, MIKE NESMITH were submitting their OWN compositions for consideration. Therefore, as time wore on, when BOYCE AND HART were called upon to supply a song, they pretty much needed to have one "at the ready."
THE FABLE:
According to BOYCE's account (as published in his book), back in the day when DON KIRSHNER oversaw those musical selections, he called BOYCE AND HART one morning and told TOMMY (who just happened to answer the phone ... BOBBY was still sound asleep) that he had a dream last night that the title of THE MONKEES' next #1 Record should be a girl's name. Spontaneously, TOMMY BOYCE replied, "Donnie, you won't believe this!!! But, last night while you were having that dream, BOBBY and I wrote an unbelievably great song for THE MONKEES ... and, are you ready for this? ... it has a girl's name in the title!" KIRSHNER was flabbergasted! "Tell me the title, quick! I want to hear it! What's her name?"
Of course, TOMMY couldn't comply ... the song hadn't been written yet! "Donnie, her name is so beautiful and so exciting that I couldn't possibly tell it to you over the phone. But I'll tell you what ... you're going to love it when you hear it tomorrow." Despite KIRSHNER's insistence that TOMMY come over now and play him the song ... or, better yet, that KIRSHNER drop by THEIR place to hear the tune (that hadn't yet been written!), TOMMY finally stalled him with the excuse that BOBBY was still sleeping. (Of course, HART didn't know ANY of this as he really WAS still asleep ... and had no idea what TOMMY had just committed them to!) KIRSHNER was adamant ... "How about noon TODAY at my place?!?!" BOYCE says it was more of a command than a question. "Okay," he said, giving in, "but do me a favor. Please have everyone there who's connected with the television show." KIRSHNER agreed to assemble producers BERT SCHNEIDER and BOB RAPHELSON, vice president LESTER SILL, and chairman-of-the-board JACKIE COOPER. (Nothing like putting a little more pressure on the situation!!!)
At 10:00 BOYCE decided to wake BOBBY and tell him the news ... after all, having just committed to writing the next #1 song in America was a pretty big deal!!! Realizing the pressure they were under, both songwriters quickly began making a list of girls' names but none particularly struck their fancy. TOMMY had the beginnings of a melody but they just weren't able to put it together with any of the names on the list. They decided to take a drive, hoping for inspiration (or divine intervention). At 11:00, while driving along Mulholland Drive, TOMMY finally asked BOBBY to "reach deep into your past for a recollection of one girl in your life, or even in your dreams, that you had never told anybody about." HART gave it some thought and then replied that there WAS a girl in High School that he liked a lot but she never returned the favor. He would think about her every once in a while over the years and once had even written a song about her. "I was never too hot on the song," he said, "but what I liked about it was the name, which was hers."
"Come on, BOBBY," TOMMY exclaimed, "tell me her name and my melody will flow right out to meet her." And, of course, BOBBY then replied, "And her name was VALLERI" ... which INSTANTLY fit the melody that TOMMY had been working on! Now fifteen minutes away from their meeting at KIRSHNER's house, that left them all of twelve minutes to complete the song!!! They got as far as "There's a girl I know who makes me feel so good" which, along with the chorus, "and her name is Valleri ... I love you, Valleri" was all they had when they pulled into the driveway.
BOYCE was banking on the fact that KIRSHNER had wanted a song with a girl's name in the title SO badly ... and the fact that he had already told him about the GREAT song they had written "the night before" ... that the conditions were, in effect, pre-programmed for them to present THE MONKEES' next big smash hit single. (With all those executives sitting in the room waiting for the debut, the anticipation was exceptionally high ... TOMMY believed that ANY song they would have played based around a girl's name would have qualified as "exactly what they were looking for.") They sang the chorus line in two-part harmony and then the first two lines of the verse ... which was all they had. They then explained that the song still needed a little work but there was nothing to worry about ... they'd have it completed by tomorrow. They then "did a reprise on the part we had written, singing it with the all gusto one reserves for GOD BLESS AMERICA." For the grand-finale, BOYCE hit a big final chord, tossed his guitar over his shoulder and went down on one knee in his "best ELVIS fashion." The room fell silent as they waited for KIRSHNER's reaction. Finally, KIRSHNER jumped to his feet and shouted "It's a smash ... Number One!!!" All the other execs in the room agreed. They had pulled it off! According to TOMMY, they completed the first verse later that day and then booked studio time for the following afternoon. Then they went to a movie!!! THE MONKEES were told to report to the studio the following day at five o'clock and between two and five, the basic musical backing tracks were recorded. In twenty minutes, BOYCE AND HART wrote a second verse and between five and six o'clock THE MONKEES' vocals were added. The whole process took all of FOUR HOURS!!! It was quickly mixed and put into the television show the following week!!!
BOYCE then goes on to say that "Just as soon as the television show was aired, two disc-jockeys, one from Florida and the other from Chicago, decided on their own to make a tape of VALLERI and pipe it out from their radio stations. On each of those two stations, before it had even sold a single record, the song became Number One on the request list. RCA called Donnie Kirshner and told him that if he released it as a single, they would pre-ship two million records and guarantee that it would be the Number One Record. Good to their word, they released VALLERI the following week and within three weeks it was Number One in both Cash Box and Billboard. Two weeks later, it was Number One in almost every country in the world with sales of close to three million records."
THE FACTS:
Now that's a pretty amazing and fascinating little story ... but a little bit of research indicates that TOMMY may have "stretched the truth" just a little bit here and there.
What first tipped me off was the end bit regarding VALLERI's astounding chart life. Now PART of this story is true. After VALLERI aired on an episode of the television series, WCFL, right here in Chicago, started playing the heck out of it from a tape they had made from the broadcast. Every night it came in at #1 on the Top Five Most Requested Songs Of The Day ... and this went on for weeks and weeks and weeks. (From what I understand, some folks believe that WCFL then sent out copies of their "bootleg" version of VALLERI to other stations around the country to air ... however, I am more inclined to believe that they kept it to themselves as a "SUPER 'CFL Exclusive." However, a radio station in Florida DID get the same results when THEY played a taped copy on the air ... the request lines lit up like a Christmas tree and Florida fans couldn't get enough of the song.) Growing up here at the time, I clearly remember ALL of these events as I, too, thought VALLERI was a great song and listened to WCFL's Top Requests Countdown every night! I remember my frustration at not being able to BUY the song because it was only available on tape at the radio station.
However, THIS is where BOYCE's story falls apart. VALLERI first aired on the CAPTAIN CROCODILE episode of the television series on February 20, 1967, five months after the series premiered on NBC. It was not released as a single until March of 1968 ... a full THIRTEEN MONTHS later!!! (An RCA / COLGEMS recording log that I found shows that THE MONKEES first laid down this track on August 6, 1966 ... HARDLY the week before it aired! In fact, this was before a single episode of the TV series had ever been shown ... so, if ANY of that conversation between KIRSHNER and BOYCE AND HART ever really happened, they wouldn't have referred to VALLERI as THE MONKEES' "NEXT Number One Hit ... it would have been their very FIRST Number One Hit!!! They had not yet released a single recording!!!)
When VALLERI WAS finally released as a single a year later, it was a completely re-recorded version, which DID go to #1 in Cash Box but stopped at #3 in Billboard. THE MONKEES recorded a completely new version of this song in December of 1967 (sessions were held on the 26th and the 28th), which ultimately became the hit single release. (Being a HUGE MONKEES fan at the time, I remember personally being VERY surprised to see this single finally being released after all that time.) Songwriting partner BOBBY HART explains that after wrestling control away from KIRSHNER regarding the selection of the material THE MONKEES would record ... and then winning the rights to play their own instruments on those records ... by the end of 1967 they also had it written into their contracts that ALL future recordings would show "Produced by THE MONKEES" on the label. (By this time, each member of the band was generally recording their new tracks individually anyway, so when a new album was completed, they simply went with the group production credit.)
As such, the 1966 track (which was produced by BOYCE AND HART) had to be scrapped because the Musicians Union contracts had already been filed with BOYCE AND HART's names on them as producers. This meant that when THE MONKEES decided to release VALLERI as a single, a whole new track needed to be created. BOYCE AND HART (who, by this time, had been dismissed as producers) were approached about coming back and, according to HART, "making it sound as close to the original as possible." Contrary to TOMMY's account, BOBBY says "VALLERI was specifically written for them. Over a year after we cut the song, LESTER SILL came back to us and said, 'They want you to recut VALLERI. You can't have producers credit, but we want you to go back in and do it again, making it sound as close to the original as possible.' So that's what we did."
During the re-recording process, yet ANOTHER mix was created ... and this is the one that seems to have found its way to oldies radio ... in fact, the "cold ending" version is now more likely to be heard than the original hit single version! Today, we give you all THREE versions in FORGOTTEN HITS ... the very rare TV-version mix (VALLERI-1), the hit single version (VALLERI-2, which is the re-recording from 1968 that fades out at the end) and the other now-more-popular "cold ending" version (VALLERI-3). Hopefully, along the way we've also shared a fascinating look at the song's origins! (Unfortunately, this seems to be yet another case of 30-year hindsight propaganda making for a better story than the truth ... with so many erroneous "facts" stated in BOYCE's account of the song's success, one cannot help but wonder what other "mistruths" might exist in his account of the events of the day ... writing the song in an hour and a half, selling it to a room full of executives with two lines of verse and two lines of chorus and then recording the whole thing with THE MONKEES in one hour ... now knowing that at LEAST three complete takes exist!) However, the "embellished" account sure does make for a fascinating story!!!
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