Uncool Singer-Song Writers

When people talk about singer-songwriters they usually mean something in the weepy confessional mode like James Taylor, or, in a more contemporary mode, Sufjan Stevens. Not that both Mr. Taylor, and Mr. Stevens have not done estimable work, they have. But the singer-songwriter tag is never applied to people who put together AM radio pop fare. Singer-songwriter to me can be equally applied to Gene Pitney, Tommy Roe, and the subjects of this essay, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart.

Boyce and Hart made substantial contributions to the pop sound of the 1960s. Tommy Boyce started his career as a boy-singer in a teeny-bop mode and posted a couple of minor chart entries. But, when he teamed up with Bobby Hart, they had the magic touch. They started penning songs for Jay and The Americans, Paul Revere and the Raiders, and of course, their most famous contributions to the catalog of the pre-fab four, the Monkees. They may have just about written the toughest pop song of the 1960s. (I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone is one of the great kiss-off songs in the vein of the bad boy kissing off the rich girl in the history of that sub-genre of 1960s songs. But, it was as a singing duo that Boyce and Hart should be remembered. They were singer-songwriters in every sense of the word and do not credit for being as such. They had a few hits, but really should have had more and should have been a major act. They produced what I consider to be one of the great AM nuggets of all time. One of these days I will put together a list of these and this will be on the top (as a side note: I'm A Believer, It's a Cryin' Shame, and It's Only Make Believe would also be on the list, but that is another essay). The song is, I Wonder What She's Doing Tonite. This song has it all, heavily-strummed guitars, punchy horn charts, and stellarly belted harmonies from Tommy and Bobby. The duo was pimped on network TV programs, but it only added marginally to their status. Elizabeth Montgomery dancing with Elizabeth Montgomery (in her dual roles as cousins Samantha and Serena) while a record album is spinning in mid-air and playing their non-hit, I'll Blow You A Kiss In The Wind, is one of the great moments of 1960 TV.

Did you know that Tommy and Bobby even got political? Yep, they penned a song that promoted the 18-year old vote called L.U.V. (Let Us Vote), even though the duo themselves had been eligible to vote for about a good ten years when this record came out.

Why are they not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? It is hard to imagine the 1960s without them.

The duo teamed up with a couple of Monkees in the mid-1970s with a group called Dolenz, Jones, Boyce, and Hart. The attempt was to pass the quartet off as a reconstituted Monkees, but the band name was tied up in litigation at the time. An album under the name of this quartet which largely went nowhere had some more Boyce and Hart originals on it. Bobby Hart had a solo bubbling under hit in the 1980s. It was really an ignonymous end, and these two, who helped craft the sound of that decade really deserve better