#35: Porpoise Song by the Monkees

City: Edmonton, AB
Radio Station: CJCA
Peak Month: November 1968
Peak Position in Edmonton: #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #62
YouTube: “Porpoise Song”
Lyrics: “Porpoise Song”

Robert Michael Nesmith was born on December 30, 1942 in Houston, TX. His mother, Bette invented liquid paper and would later leave the $20 million estate to him. Affectionately nicknamed “Nez,” he learned to play saxophone as a young child and joined the United States Air Force years later. After two years in the Air Force, he left to pursue a career in folk music. In 1962 Nesmith won a talent contest at San Antonio College. He left Texas and moved to Los Angeles, with the intent of getting into the movie business. He became the “hoot master” at a regular hootenanny at the Troubadour in West Hollywood. In 1963 Nesmith released a 45 of a song he wrote called “Wanderin'”. In 1964 Nesmith wrote “Different Drum”, which was a #13 hit for Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys on the Billboard Hot 100 and #5 in Vancouver in 1967.

During this time he formed the trio named Mike and John and Bill. They recorded a single in 1965 called “How Can You Kiss Me,” which was a Top 40 hit in San Antonio, Texas, in May of ’65. Later that year Nesmith released a solo disc titled “A Journey With Michael Blessing” that made the Top 50 in a few radio markets in Pennsylvania and Ohio, credited to Michael Blessing. With hopes of getting a job as a songwriter, Mike auditioned for The Monkees in late-1965.

In September 1965, Daily Variety, a Los Angeles entertainment industry paper, placed an ad that read: “MADNESS!! Auditions. Folk & Roll Musician-Singers for acting roles in new TV series. Running parts for 4 insane boys.” Over 400 older boys and young men lined up at the studio near Sunset Boulevard, hopeful for a chance at stardom. Stephen Stills and Harry Nilsson were among the hopefuls waiting to be discovered. Walking to the front of the line and right into the producer’s office was 19-year old Davy Jones. Born in suburban Manchester, UK, in 1945, Jones had been in the acting business since he was a child. In 1959, his Aunt Jessie answered an ad in the Manchester Evening News calling for “school boys to audition for a radio play” with the BBC She helped David, at 13, get the lead role in There is a Happy Land. He was on an episode of Coronation Street  in March 1961, when he was 15 years of age. He appeared on stage as Little Michael in Peter Pan, and than as the Artful Dodger in Oliver! in the early 60’s in the West End of London. In 1964 he was in a Broadway production of Oliver! and nominated for a Tony Award at the age of 18. In 1965, Jones released several singles and had two Top Ten hits in Australia, including #4 hit “The Girl From Chelsea”.

One of the people David Jones walked past in the lineup was Mickey Dolenz. Born in 1945 in Los Angeles, Dolenz started his career in show-business at the age of eleven, in 1956, in a TV show called Circus Boy. Dolenz was given the acting name, Mickey Braddock, and the role he was cast in was to play Corky, an orphaned water boy for the elephants in a one-ring circus set around 1900. The show ran through to the spring of 1958. By the mid-60’s Dolenz was in a band playing mostly covers of R&B hits, including many by Chuck Berry. Dolenz sang Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” in his audition for The Monkees. In 1965 Dolenz cut recorded several singles, one of these, “Don’t Do It” was released in 1967 and made the Top 20 in Edmonton and Ottawa. Another person lining up hoping to be chosen for the new TV show was Peter Halsten Thorkelson. Born in Washington D.C. in 1942, he studied piano from the age of nine and lived in New York City. Peter got involved in the folk music scene in Greenwich Village and met Stephen Stills and other folk singers. Before he moved to California in the early 60’s, he shortened his surname to Tork.

Jones, Nesmith, Dolenz and Tork were all successful in auditioning for The Monkees TV show. Their lineup was international: British and American. David Jones was introduced on the first episode of The Monkees as Davey Jones and “Davey” was how he was know from that day forward. On their debut single, Micky Dolenz sang the lead vocal on “Last Train To Clarksville.” The B-side to “Last Train To Clarksville”, a gentle anti-war song, was “(I’m Not You) Steppin Stone”.

Micky Dolenz sang lead vocals on “I’m A Believer,” the bands second #1 hit in a row. Dolenz would later sing lead vocals on their summer hit in 1967, “Pleasant Valley Sunday,” written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin. Davey Jones sang lead vocals on their other Top Ten hits in ’67, “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You” and their third #1 hit, “Daydream Believer”.

While initially a TV series about a band that didn’t actually exist, The Monkees did a live promotional tour of seven cities in the USA beginning on September 1 in Hollywood. The tour featured previews of The Monkees TV show on large screens and The Monkees playing a few tunes. KHJ radio in Los Angeles staged the most ambitious event of the tour on September 11, 1966. KHJ had a contest and the 400 winners rode on a train to the coastal town of Del Mar, California, twenty miles north of San Diego. The town’s mayor renamed Del Mar on September 11 as Clarksville for the day in honor of The Monkees appearance. The Monkees landed on the beach in two helicopters, dressed in their signature double-breasted shirts, greeted by the KHJ contest winners. After the event, The Monkees rode in the train train with the contest winners back to Los Angeles. On one of the train cars, The Monkees gave their first true live public performance. As the train was traveling at 80 miles per hour, Micky Dolenz drum set fell over several times as no one had thought about securing the drums to the floor.

The Monkees went on tour with 16 scattered concert dates between December 3, 1966 (Honolulu) and May 6, 1967 (Wichita, KS). The concert in Honolulu was The Monkees first full length live concert. They were one of the acts performing at the Monterey Pop Festival in mid-June, 1967. They mounted a tour with dates in the USA and Britain between June and August. The tour included Jimi Hendrix as the opening act for seven of these concerts between July 8th (Jacksonville, FL) and 16th (New York City).

In 1968, The Monkees TV show featured one last song to make the Top Ten on the Billboard Hot 100 called “Valleri”. The unremarkable tune was Mike Nesmith coined it “the worst record ever.” The B-side to “Valleri” was “Tapicoa Tundra”, written by Michael Nesmith.

In the late ’60’s Vancouverites were in the mood for songs with a psychedelic vibe. In addition to “Tapioca Tundra,” other psychedelia climbed up the charts. These included “Lydia Purple” by The Collectors, “Brain Washed” by David Clayton-Thomas & The Bossmen, “Ten Little Indians” by The Yardbirds, “A Question Of Temperature” by The Balloon Farm, “Happenings Ten Years Time Ago” by The Yardbirds, “Animal Crackers (In Cellophane Boxes)” by Gene Pitney, “The Wind Cries Mary” by Jimi Hendrix, “Smashed Blocked” by John’s Children, “Early Morning” by The Collectors and “On The Way Home” by Buffalo Springfield.

After their two-season run on TV, The Monkees had a tour to Australia in September and Japan in October. In November ’68, The Monkees were featured in a psychedelic film titled Head. The script was co-written by Jack Nicholson. In addition to the bandmates, the film’s cast included Annette Funicello, Frank Zappa, Toni Basil, Jack Nicholson and Sonny Liston. The film was a commercial failure only managing $16,111 at the box office. The film both alienated The Monkees fan base and caused Columbia Pictures to abandon plans for any future Monkees films.

A single from the Head soundtrack, “Porpoise Song” was released in the fall of 1968.

In the Monkees’ 1968 feature film Head, “Porpoise Song” appears at the beginning and end of the production in two variations on the same scene. At the start of the film, the group are being chased, running onto a bridge. In an attempt to escape, Dolenz jumps from the bridge as the others look on in shock. Next, Davy, Peter and Mike jump off the bridge and fall, float in the air. As Dolenz sinks into the water, he is saved from drowning by a couple of beautiful mermaids. At the end of the film, the other members follow Dolenz and jump or fall from the bridge. As they appear to swim to shore, the camera zooms out, revealing them to be trapped in a large glass tank of water being pulled by a truck. Footage in both sequences is extensively solarized.

“Porpoise Song” was written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King. Born Carol Joan Klein, Carole King was born in 1942 in Manhattan and raised in Brooklyn. Her parents were Jewish. From the age of three, her mother taught her how to play piano. At age four her parents discovered she had perfect pitch, and was able to sing each note on target. Of her piano lessons King later said in an interview, “My mother never forced me to practice. She didn’t have to. I wanted so much to master the popular songs that poured out of the radio.” In 1957 Carole Klein formed a group called the Co-sines, and changed her surname from Klein to King. At the time she dated Neil Sedaka. She and fellow student Paul Simon recorded demo records for $25 a disc.

By 1958 she began work at the Brill Building on Broadway. That year she released a single she wrote titled “The Right Girl” on ABC/Paramount. This was followed by the energetic “Baby Sittin'”. Then in 1959 Carole King released a single co-written with Gerry Goffin titled “Queen Of The Beach”, which charted in Louisiana and elsewhere.

Carole King met Gerry Goffin at a lounge at Queens College. He was working on a musical about beatniks, and was looking for someone to compose the music. King was looking for a partner to provide thoughtful lyrics for her infectious rock melodies. They quickly decided to form a songwriting partnership and were hired on at Aldon Music. The couple got married in August 1959 when Carole King was 17.

Neil Sedaka had a Top Ten hit in December 1959 titled “Oh Carol”. She wrote an answer song titled “Oh Neil”, that included the line “I had too much molasses, and your lips stuck to mine.” The song made the Top 20 in Utica, New York, in February 1960.

In 1960 King and Goffin co-wrote “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” by the Shirelles. The song climbed to number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 on January 30, 1961. (And #15 on CFUN in Vancouver, BC). The success of the record allowed King and Goffin to focus their attention on songwriting as a career, no longer needing to work other part-time jobs. And in 1961 they wrote a song recorded by Bobby Vee titled “Take Good Care Of My Baby”, which was a number-one hit on the Hot 100 for three weeks in September ’61.

Other hits for the songwriting duo followed. Among these, in 1961 there was “Every Breath I Take” by Gene Pitney (#9 in Vancouver/#42 on the Hot 100). Their 1962 hits included “Her Royal Majesty” by James Darren in 1962 (#4 in Vancouver/#6 on the Hot 100); “The Loco-motion” by Little Eva which spent nine weeks in the Top Ten in Vancouver, peaking at #1 (#1 on the Hot 100). Meanwhile, Carole King had a #3 hit on the UK singles chart with “It Might As Well Rain Until September”.

In January 1963, King and Goffin saw “Up On The Roof” by the Drifters climb to #3 in Vancouver (#5 Hot 100), while “Go Away Little Girl” by Steve Lawrence became a number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 on January 12, 1963, (#11 in Vancouver). Other Top Ten hits on the Billboard Hot 100 Goffin and King wrote in 1963 include “Hey Girl” by Freddie Scott, “I Can’t Stay Mad At You” by Skeeter Davis, “One Fine Day” for the Chiffons, and “Don’t Say Nothin’ Bad (About My Baby) by the Cookies. The latter song was about a gal telling her girlfriends, “Don’t you tell me my baby’s just a playboy. He’s true. He’s true to me. So girl you better shut your mouth.”

One of the members of the Cookies was Earl-Jean Reavis (nee McRae). While the Cookies were on tour in the fall of 1963, Reavis became pregnant. Gerry Goffin was named as the father. The baby, Dawn Reavis, was born in July 1964.

In 1964 Goffin and King wrote “I’m Into Something Good”, recorded by Earl-Jean Reavis which began to chart in early July ’64. It was later successfully covered and a number-one hit in the UK for Herman’s Hermits. Another hit for Goffin and King in ’64 was “He’s In Town” which became a #3 hit for the Rockin’ Berries in the UK.

As their marital relationship became more turbulent, Goffin and King had fewer successes with hit records. However, between 1965 and 1968, their notable songwriting efforts include “Just Once In My Life” by the Righteous Brothers, “Don’t Bring Me Down” by the Animals, “Pleasant Valley Sunday” by the Monkees and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” by Aretha Franklin. In 1971 Carole King had international success with her Grammy Award winning album, Tapestry, and singles “It’s Too Late”, “I Feel The Earth Move” and “So Far Away”.

“Porpoise Song” features a porpoise that is waiving “goodbye” to humans as it observes our antics: our egos, our lifestyles, our challenges to be able to feel or “to know what’s real.” We can ride on the backs of giraffes, or build a castle or become a king. But what it is for. The singer laments “living is a lie.” The song infers that porpoises have it better, not weighted down by human preoccupations and looking out for number one.

“The Porpoise Song” peaked at #4 in Edmonton (AB), #9 in Saint Charles (MO), #10 in Orlando, St. Louis, Wilkes-Barre (PA), and Reading (PA). The psychedelic-rock single stalled at #62 on the Billboard Hot 100.

“Porpoise Song” was later featured in the soundtrack of the 2001 film Vanilla Sky featuring Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz and Cameron Diaz. It has been covered by the Australian band The Church, Grapes of Wrath, Django Django and others.

Unhappy with the bands’ direction, Peter Tork left The Monkees at the end of December, 1968, after filming the bands last TV appearance that was to air on NBC in April ’69. Later in 1969, the remaining three Monkees released a number of singles. This included a Top Ten hit in Australia titled “Mary Mary”, and “Tear Drop City” from the album Instant Replay.

In the fall of 1969, they released “Mommy And Daddy”. The song was on the pop charts overlapping the sixth anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. It invited children to “ask your Mommy and Daddy who really killed JFK?” Jones, Nesmith and Dolenz went on a tour with 46 concert dates in Canada, the USA and Mexico. The tour opened in Vancouver (BC) on March 29, 1969, and the final concert that year was in Salt Lake City, Utah, on December 6th. The Salt Lake City concert was Mike Nesmith’s last performance as Monkee until a reunion concert in 1986. He did a few promotional TV ads for The Monkees which was now airing in reruns.

In 1970, Nesmith left The Monkees to form The First National Band. That year he enjoyed a Top 30 hit in the USA called “Joanne,” which climbed to #3 in Vancouver. On their own, Davey Jones and Micky Dolenz appeared in concert a number of times in 1970 and released a few singles that were commercial failures. They officially split at the end of the year.

In their brief life as a recording act, The Monkees sold over 50 million records. While they officially split in 1971 after Mike Nesmith left the band, the bulk of their record sales occurred between August 16, 1966, with the release of “Last Train To Clarksville,” and their final Top Ten album, The Birds, The Bees and The Monkees, in the spring of 1968. They remain the only recording act to chart four albums to #1 in a twelve month span on the Billboard 200 album chart.

In 1975 Jones and Dolenz teamed up with Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart to do a tour of 38 cities across 13 states. In 1976, they performed in twenty cities across the USA, Japan, Singapore and Thailand. Boyce and Hart had written numbers of songs for The Monkees and were a singer-songwriting team in their own right. In 1986 Davy Jones and Peter Tork went on a 17 concert tour of Australia. An even more ambitious tour saw Jones and Tork joined by Micky Dolenz across the USA for 145 concerts between May 24 and December 3. For one of these concerts ~ the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles ~ Mike Nesmith joined the concert for an original lineup on their 20 year reunion tour. Jones and Tork returned to Australia to perform in 42 concerts in 1987. There were more tours to follow in the USA, Australia and Japan. And in 1989 Jones, Tork and Dolenz went on a 32 concert tour of Europe. The trio went on a 30th Anniversary tour of the USA in 1996. And in 1997 they were joined by Mike Nesmith on a tour of the UK.

Jones, Dolenz and Tork continued to tour as Monkees in different combinations at a trio and a duo with their last big tour in 2011, 45 years after The Monkees TV show debuted.

Davy Jones died in 2012 at the age of 66. On Friday evening, September 16, 2016, in Los Angeles, four days after the 50th Anniversary of the debut of The Monkees on NBC, Michael Nesmith walked onto the stage with Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork at the historic, and sold out, Pantages Theatre to perform what he professed would be his final concert with The Monkees.

However, Micky Dolenz and Mike Nesmith planned to be on 17 concert tour in the winter of 20019-2020 billed as “The Monkees Present: The Mike Nesmith & Micky Dolenz Show.” ​Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tour was postponed to 2021. Continuing travel restrictions between Canada and the USA precluded any Canadian stops on their tour when it resumed in ’21.

Mike Nesmith died in December 2021 at the age of 78.

August 20, 2024
Ray McGinnis

References:
Andy Greene, “Davy Jones: The Life of a Monkee: How a Child Actor Joined the Best Fake Band of All Time – and Never Escaped,” Rolling Stone, March 29, 2012.
Davey Jones bio, Davey Jones.net.
Damian Fanelli, “Interview: Michael Nesmith, Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork Talk Monkees Summer Tour, ‘Headquarters’ and What They Learned from Jimi Hendrix,” Guitar World, New York, NY, July 26, 2013.
Peter Tork bio, Wizard World.com
Micheal Nesmith bio, Monkees Rule 43.com
Micky Dolenz biography, Micky Dolenz.com
Monkees 1967 U.S. & British Tour (dates), Monkees Live Almanac.com
Bob Rafaelson ~ Director, Head ~ trailer, Columbia Pictures, 1968.
Wake Up Girl, Coca-Cola commercial, 1969.
Ryan Schwartz, “The Monkees’ Peter Tork dead at 77,” TV Line, February 21, 2019.
Andrew Danby, “Texas native, great Michael Nesmith, dies,” San Antonio Express-News, December 10, 2021.
James E. Perone, The Words and Music of Carole King, (Praeger, 2006).
Troy Brownfield, “Carole King Finally Went Solo 50 Years Ago,” Saturday Evening Post, May 15, 2020.
Carole King, A Natural Woman, (Grand Central Publishing, 2010).
Robert Gluck, “Carole King: Famous, Yet ‘Haimische’,” Jerusalem Post, November 24, 2012.
Meridith Blake, “Gerry Goffin, Songwriting Partner of Carole King, Dies at 75,” Los Angeles Times, June 19, 2014.
“Carole King Gets Star on Walk of Fame,” Patch Media, Hollywood, CA, December 4, 2012.
Gary Graff, “Monkee Micky Dolenz Pays Tribute To Carole King“, Billboard, June 3, 2010.

CHED 630-AM Edmonton (ON) Top Ten | November 25, 1968*
* “Porpoise Song” peaked on CHED at #4 week of November 18, 1968