23 January 1967
It feels almost refreshing to listen to ‘I’m A Believer’ today, free of context and baggage. Is The Monkees’ show still being repeated on TV? Perhaps by some retro oldies channel, but hardly on Saturday morning kids’ TV the way my malleable small-child brain experienced it and ’60s Batman in the ’80s. Also, the whole “they didn’t play their instruments!” controversy that lingered even into my lifetime was a red herring anyway: we now know that other ’60s hits by guitar bands The Byrds (such as ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’) and The Beach Boys (who were busy touring while Brian Wilson stayed home in the studio) were played mostly by the Wrecking Crew of L.A. session musicians. And at least The Monkees actually sang on the records they were repping, something which by 1989 and ‘Ride On Time’ seems almost quaint. So, let’s take ‘I’m A Believer’ as just another ’60s number one single.
Happily, ‘I’m A Believer’ is quite good. It’s genuinely catchy and energetic. Okay, so Micky, at this point still only a notional drummer, is hardly any more convincing as a singer. But he has an actor’s feel for the lyrics, and captures the shift from downbeat verses to exultant chorus: “when I needed sunshine I got rain” is a little gem of a line. Thumbs up to the session players too: the guitar hook gives away the song’s likely provenance as DIY-‘Paperback Writer’ but has its own swagger, plus the rumbling keyboard solo is funky and distinctive.
On which point, one of those session players on ‘I’m A Believer’ is the song’s writer, a Neil Diamond. His dreadful wares will clutter up our charts in the years to follow, even eventually topping the Irish pops with the one about the non-listening chair. For now, though, I find myself thinking positive thoughts about an actual Neil Diamond song; maybe these 1967 number ones will pass on their Summer of Love vibes to me.
Irish Number Ones 