Boyce And Hart two for the price of one

Charlotte, NC
Phoenix, AZ.

“BUZZ: Newspaper Article: Jan- Feb 2012 (#11-K)

Greetings Fans,

It’s good to be back in the new year of 2012,
I decided I would cover my favorite musical duo:

*How it all started:
I first heard of “Boyce & Hart” when I was playing my Uncle John’s Monkees 1st LP from 1966. I saw they wrote some of my favorite songs on the record like “Last to Clarksville” “Tomorrow’s Gonna be Another Day” “This Just Doesn’t Seem to be My Day” Then one day after school I was watching “I Dream of Jeannie” and it was the episode “Hip, Hippy” from 17 Oct 1967 with Boyce & Hart performing the songs “Out and About” & “Love Everyday”. I thought those are the guys that wrote songs for the Monkees?!?!?!? Cool, they have their own songs out too … ! One time on a trip with my parents to Jerome, Az. my Dad said to me “You know that Monkees song you like “Last Train to Clarksville” well it was written about this town here, Clarksdale, AZ. in an interview I did with Bobby Hart in 1993 I asked Bobby about this and Bobby confirmed what my Dad had said was true.

*Meeting the Guys:
I first met Tommy Boyce in Jun 1986 at a Monkees concert in Des Moines, Iowa. I later met up with Tommy, and then also met Bobby Hart (& Tommy’s 1st wife Bobbi) in Chicago Aug 1990 at a Monkees Convention. I remember Tommy saying “That’s quite a girlfriend you have there, mind if I give her a kiss?” I said without thinking “If I can kiss your wife” Tommy said “Fine with me” Many years later a girlfriend of mine would inform me that she used to wait on Tommy at “Barbara’s Bar” in Nashville “He used to sit on the end of the bar and order Jack & Coke”

Through Bobby I met Drummer Billy R. Lewis in 1993 and I became friends with both Bobby & Billy and eventually Tommy’s 2nd wife Caroline, after Tommy’s death. In 1995 I put together a rough draft presentation of a “Behind the Music: Boyce & Hart: Two for the Price of One” unfortunately we could not find a producer to pick up (fund) the project. I was such a huge fan of B&H, I had Bobby record an answering machine message for me in 1995 I used for many years, I used to get some ribbing from my friends about that, but it sure kept the telemarketers at bay.

*The Cast of Characters:
Tommy Boyce (Sidney Thomas Boyce, 29 Sep 1939 Charlottesville, Virginia- RIP: 23 Nov 1994 Nashville, TN)
Bobby Hart (Robert Luke Harshman, 18 Feb 1939, Phoenix, Arizona)
The Candy Store Prophets: 1965-1967
Billy Reid Lewis (14 Aug 1940 Santa Monica, CA- RIP: 7 May 2005), Louie Shelton (6 Apr 1941 Little Rock, Ar) & Larry “The Mole” Taylor (Samuel Taylor 26 Jun 1942, NYC) Gerry McGee (1937 Eunice, Louisiana)

* Solo 45 Single Records
Tommy Boyce released 18 singles from 1960 to 1973 on various labels such as: Dot, RCA, Colpix, MGM, A&M, R-Dell, WOW, Capitol & Chelsea. Some of his best songs: “Come Here Joann” “I’ll Remember Carol” “Let’s Go Where the Action Is” “Pretty Thing” & “Eve Laurain” Tommy’s 1st solo LP was “A Twofold Talent” in 1968 on RCA- Camden (his 1961-63 RCA recordings) and also released a solo LP under the name “Christopher Cloud” in 1973 on Chelsea records.

Bobby Hart released 14 Singles from 1959 to 1980 on various labels as: Guyden, Radio, Reel, Bamboo, Era, Infinity, DCP, Chelsea, Warner Bros. & Ariola. Some of his best songs: “Love Whatcha Doin To Me” “Hard Core Man” (from “Freebie & The Bean” 1974 WB) & “Lovers For The Night” Bobby released a solo LP in 1979 titled “The First Bobby Hart Solo Record”

Tommy and Bobby met in 1959 in LA at a recording studio Bobby worked at, the 1st meeting was to help a mutual friend Curtis Lee break into the music biz. B&H began writing together in 1960 at first writing what they called answer songs for example Jim reeves had a song titled “He’ll Have To Go” so B&H wrote a song called “She’ll Have To Stay” in their writing style it was generally one finishing up a song the other had brought to the table. B&H were brought into the famous Brill Building a song writers office in NYC where they started churning out the hits starting with “Lazy Elsie Molly” a #40 hit on 11Jul1964 for Chubby Checker.

*Hey hey the Man with the Golden Ear
B&H were hired by “The Man With The Golden Ear” Donnie Kirshner in 1965 to write hit pop songs for the new 1966 TV Show “The Monkees” Kirshner liked their song “Come A Little Bit Closer” #3 hit for Jay & the Americans on 21Nov1964. So the duo went to work and penned 3 songs for the pilot episode “Theme from the Monkees” “I Wanna Be Free” & “Let’s Dance On” in fact B&H wrote more songs for The Monkees, than any other outside writers26 in total, with the exception being Michael Nesmith. B&H have at least 1 song if not up to 7 songs on 8 of the 9 original 60s Monkees LPs including songs on their 1986- 87 reunion LPs.

One of my all time favorite songs “Words” recorded in 1966 & again 67 I asked Tommy “where did the inspiration come from” Tommy replied “Bobby & I used to fly from New York to LA all the time and the was a stewardess we used to see on most of our flights, one time she gave us a card and inside it said in big letters “WORDS, are not enough to express what you two mean to me” so we used that as the title and it went from there”. Also in 1965 the duo were hired to write the theme music for a new daytime soap opera “Day’s Of Our Lives” Bobby recalled “Originally each character had their own theme music when they entered the room or scene”

Boyce & Hart also wrote songs for such varied artists as: Fats Domino, The Ikettes, Freddy Cannon, Herman’s Hermits, Del Shannon, Paul Revere & Raiders, Little Anthony & Imperials, The Astronauts, Austin Roberts, Helen Reddy, Partridge Family, Josie & Pussycats, Keith Alison, Boston Tea Party, Pineapple Heard, Ray Peterson, Dino, Desi & Billy, Iggy Pop, ShowWaddyWaddy, Connie Cato, Kathy Garver, Sunday Sharpe, Willie Burgundy Five, Robbie Nevil, New Edition, Latoya Jackson, Scooby Doo and so many more….

*At the Record Shops
Boyce & Hart released 3 LPs the 1st is “Test Patterns” in 1967 stand out tracks to me are: “Shadows” “For Baby” & “Life” their 2nd LP “I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight?” in early 1968 stand out tracks for me are: “Two For The Price Of One” (Larry Wiliams & Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson) “Teardrop City” & “Population” their 3rd and final LP was “It’s All Happening On The Inside” in late 1968 with stand out tracks to me being: “Strawberry Girl” “Jumpin Jack Flash” & “My Baby Loves Sad Songs” and in an unusual move B&H with their band recorded an entire LP with Trini Lopez “The Whole Enchilada” in 1969 on Warner Bros. with 3 B&H songs including “Sunshine Park”. Billy Lewis told my about this LP in 1993 and I finally found one 12 years later.

*Billboard Pop Hits:
Boyce & Hart released 9 Singles from 1967 to 1969 which 8 of them were on A&M “I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonite” #8 on the charts 24Feb1968, b/w “The Ambushers” from the 1967 Dean Martin film of the same name. “Alice Long” #27 on the charts 2Aug1968, “Out And About” #39 on the charts 5Aug1967, “Goodbye Baby” # 53 on the charts 27Apr1968, b/w “Where Angles Go” from the 1968 Stella Stevens film of the same name.

The last one on their own ‘B&H Aquarian’ “I’ll Blow You A Kiss in The Wind” & “Smilin” from the TV show ‘Bewitched’ on 19 Feb 1970 in “Serena Stops the Show” oddly enough “Smilin” was re-written as a “Coca Cola” jingle in 1969. B&H also appeared on the TV show ‘Flying Nun’ 20 Mar 1970 in “When Generations Gap” the performed the songs “Let’s All Take A Trip To Nashville” & “I Thank You”

*Stories from the Road:
In 1968 B&H got involved with the Robert Kennedy Presidential Election Campaign, as well as the campaign to lower the voting age from 21 to 18 and to promote this message their 8th single was titled “L.U.V.” (let us vote). My long time friend Larry saw B&H perform at the Robert Kennedy Memorial Concert at the Minneapolis Met Center with Sonny & Cher as the headliner except Cher was pregnant with Chasity and Sonny went on by himself and a girl they found locally to fill in for Cher. Bobby remembered “Yea, once we heard what was going to happen we went on first and got the heck outta there” Billy Lewis recalled “The Moody Blues” were on the bill too, however their equipment was held up in customs so they couldn’t perform that night” My friend Larry remembered “I saw the Boyce & Hart Logo stenciled on the side of the band’s equipment cases and thought Oh, man that must be the life, to be a musician” The band also did a concert on top of a bank building in downtown Des Moines, Iowa when asked Bobby remembered “Oh, yea that was a freebie, I’m sure…”

In Dec 1969 when B&H were the opening act for Zsa Zsa Gabor in Las Vegas when some producers approached to do their own TV Show set for fall 1970, B&H & band filmed a live concert in Phoenix for use in the upcoming TV Show. The end of B&H came when their Manager Chuck Ashman took off with a large sum of money during the Las Vegas stint with Zsa Zsa, Tommy was devastated as he looked at Ashman as a mentor, not just a manager. Tommy was so distraught he left the music & show biz for a couple years. Many years later in 1994 Tommy was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm and informed it was inoperable and could eventually erupt and leave him in a coma state. Tommy did not want to end up this way so he took matters into his own hands and chose to end his own life with a .22 pistol on 23 Nov 1994. Bobby is currently working on his Book and his own websites such as www.bobbyhart.net .

*In Closing…
I will admit a lot of people have not heard of Boyce & Hart, but all most every one has heard at least one of their songs and that was the point of this particular article. I have to give acknowledgement to my long time friend Lew Claussen, for whom without his vast knowledge I would not have obtained the massive B&H Collection I have today…..

Until, the next one………… Cheers MrZero here in St. Paul (www.mrzeros.com)

“Mr. Zero’s”
http://www.mrzeros.com
1744 Lexington Ave N
Roseville, MN. 55113
651-489-0207