The Monkees

Davy Jones' Funeral Held For Immediate Family

08 Mar 2012 11:51:30 EST

Private service held Wednesday in Florida; public memorials planned in the U.S. and Manchester, England.
By John Mitchell

A private funeral service for Davy Jones was held near the former Monkees lead singer's home in Hollywood, Florida, on Wednesday. Only immediate family attended the small service, Reuters reported. Jones' former Monkees bandmates — Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith — did not attend to avoid attracting crowds. Jones' ashes will be transported to his native Manchester, England, where a public memorial service is planned for next week. Another public memorial is being planned, but the date and location have not been confirmed, though it will likely take place in either Los Angeles or New York. There has been some talk that the surviving Monkees will perform at one of the public memorials, though Dolenz, Tork and Nesmith have not confirmed any performance plans. "The three of us, Mike and Peter and I, we have never worked together just as a threesome," Dolenz told the Associated Press on Tuesday (via the New York Times). "We've been talking, we've been communicating, but it's way too early, I think, to project or predict anything like that." Jones died on February 29 after suffering a heart attack while attending to his horses at his Florida farm, where he'd been living in recent years with his wife, Jessica. He is survived by his wife and four daughters. The singer rose to fame as the teen heartthrob lead singer of the popular made-for-TV '60s pop group the Monkees. Born on December 30, 1945, Jones began his career as a child actor, appearing in a British daytime soap opera and radio plays before landing a Tony nomination at age 16 for his role as the Artful Dodger in a Broadway production of "Oliver." With the Monkees, Jones helped create some of the most iconic pop of the 1960s, including hits "Daydream Believer," "Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)" and "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You." Though the group's popularity was relatively short-lived, Jones continued to successfully tour and perform on TV and in films throughout the '80s and '90s, and was slated to mount a U.K. tour in honor of the Monkees' 45th anniversary in May along with Tork and Dolenz.

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Davy Jones Cause Of Death Was Heart Attack

02 Mar 2012 08:20:19 EST

An autopsy confirmed that Monkees singer Davy Jones died as a result of a heart attack.
By Gil Kaufman

A day after the sudden passing of Davy Jones, the medical examiner's office in Martin County, Florida, completed an autopsy on the former Monkees singer and concluded he died of a heart attack. According to E! Online, tests revealed that the 1960s heartthrob was felled by ventricular fibrillation due to severe coronary atherosclerosis. In other words, he died as a result of an abnormal heart rhythm caused by the blocking of blood flow to the heart due to hardening of the arteries. Toxicology tests could take another six to eight weeks, but authorities don't believe that there is anything else to blame for the 66-year-old "Daydream Believer" singer's death. TMZ reported on Thursday that Jones suffered the heart attack at a ranch near his Florida home where the former jockey wannabe was visiting his horses. A ranch hand saw Jones in distress in his car and called an ambulance, which took the 1960s TV star to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Jones is survived by his third wife, Jessica, and four children from previous marriages. His former TV bandmate paid tribute to Jones following his death, with drummer/singer Mickey Dolenz saying in a statement, "the time we worked together and had together is something I'll never forget. He was the brother I never had and this leaves a gigantic hole in my heart."

Peter Tork added, "It is with great sadness that I reflect on the sudden passing of my long-time friend and fellow adventurer, David Jones. His talent will be much missed; his gifts will be with us always. Adios to the Manchester Cowboy." Guitarist Michael Nesmith posted a lengthy tribute on his Facebook page, writing, "That David has stepped beyond my view causes me the sadness that it does many of you. I will miss him, but I won't abandon him to mortality," he said. "I will think of him as existing within the animating life that insures existence. I will think of him and his family with that gentle regard in spite of all the contrary appearances on the mortal plane. David's spirit and soul live well in my heart, among all the lovely people, who remember with me the good times, and the healing times, that were created for so many, including us. I have fond memories. I wish him safe travels."

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Monkee Davy Jones Paved Way For Heartthrobs Like Justin Bieber

01 Mar 2012 12:48:59 EST

Jones, who died Wednesday, was one of the original multimedia teen dreams.
By Gil Kaufman

There had been plenty of teen heartthrobs before: from Elvis Presley, Frankie Avalon and Paul Anka in the 1950s to Ricky Nelson, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in the 1960s.

But few of them worked the angles like Davy Jones did. The Monkees singer, who died on Wednesday near his Florida home of a heart attack at age 66, was one of the original multimedia teen dreams. Before Justin Bieber blitzkrieged his fans with movies, music, perfumes and nail polish, prior to Miley Cyrus' triple-dipping in TV, movies and music, Jones made the girls cry every Monday night for two years during the prime-time run of "The Monkees," and then did it again when the group hit the road and the toy-store shelves.

Unlike his cohorts in the made-for-TV band — the serious leader/guitarist Michael Nesmith, the lovable space cadet Peter Tork and goofball drummer/singer Micky Dolenz — Jones was well primed for the spotlight by the time he auditioned for the show in late 1965. He'd already starred on Broadway in "Oliver!" as a teenager, released an album and been nominated for a Tony Award.

But once he hit the screen as the impish, tambourine-bashing Davy on "The Monkees," Jones belonged to the world. He wasn't my favorite Monkee; that honor went, in order, to slapstick master and dreamy-voiced singer Dolenz and then to bookish, reticent schemer Nesmith.

But watching the reruns of the show as a teenager, I saw an undeniable magnetism in Jones. He had that eagerness to please and boyish charm that comes of children who've spent their lives on the stage. You see it now most clearly in the striving teens desperate for what they think is their one-and-only shot at stardom on "American Idol," or in the ready-for-prime-time song-and-dance modern successor, Nickelodeon's screen-to-stage crossover "Big Time Rush."

The British Jones appeared firmly in his element alongside his American castmates, with the four essentially setting the template for all of reality TV to follow. Cast to play exaggerated versions of themselves in the madcap show, each Monkee had a distinct personality, with the diminutive Jones popping out as the one that made the girls swoon. In fact, his lovability became a recurring joke on the show, with the other three rolling their eyes every time Davy worked his charm on yet another comely beauty as they were left to be his hipster wingmen.

While his cohorts struggled to take the musical lead in the studio from domineering producer Don Kirshner, Jones was happy to smile and smack his tambourine, flip his pre-Bieber mop top and hop to the front to sing the occasional lead on hits such as the #1 smash "Daydream Believer." His poise, comfort and easy charm came through on camera amid all the zany setups on the show, making him the de facto "cute one," a transplanted doppelgänger for fellow Brit Paul McCartney of the Beatles.

The Monkees were tagged the "Prefab Four" thanks to producers' attempts to create their own Beatles-like sensation by using studio musicians to fill in on recordings for the TV cast. When the real Fab Four retreated to the studio and retired from touring the same month the Monkees released their 1966 debut album, Jones happily took on the mantle of hip-shaking, paisley-wearing, glint-in-his-eye teen dream, even as the rest of the group looked more interested in turning on and dropping ... something.

And, like McCartney, Jones became a cover boy on countless teen mags and a cha-ching maker for the Monkees machine, appearing (with his bandmates) on all the requisite spin-off products you might expect: from Halloween masks to playing cards, packages for Hot Wheels Monkeemobile toys, pens, postcards, lunch boxes, puzzles, charm bracelets, bucket hats, key chains, gum packages, hand puppets and just about anything else you can imagine.

True story: In 2010, Dolenz told me that when the Monkees toured in 1967 with their hand-picked opening act, Jimi Hendrix, the guitar legend was eventually forced to drop off the bill because his playing was often drowned out due to fans screaming Jones' name during his sets. Think about that. Many years ago, when I read a biography of glam-rock icon David Bowie, my mind was blown when I found out that his birth name was David Jones, but that he felt compelled to adopt a stage name because, yes, he feared being overshadowed by a Monkee. I'll give you a minute on that one, too.

It wasn't until years later that I learned that, with the exception of their vocals, the Monkees hardly appeared on their own albums and relied on professional songwriters like Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and Neil Diamond for almost all of their big hits. But who cares, right? Because when Davy boogaloo'd out front, Mickey swung his 'fro and beat the drums, Michael strummed the guitar with that impassive look and Peter offered up that adorable blank stare, the dream became real.

"First of all, it wasn't a band," Dolenz told me in that 2010 interview for the Cincinnati Enquirer. "It was a TV show about an imaginary band that lived in an imaginary beach house and had imaginary adventures. Because we were always struggling for success on the show I think it spoke to kids all around the world sitting in their living rooms and garages trying to be the next Beatles. The thing we left everyone with was the bizarre story of the Monkees one day going out on the road and becoming real, which Mike Nesmith used to say was like Pinocchio becoming a real boy."

Yahoo! Music named Jones the #1 teen idol of all time in 2008, besting the likes of Cyrus, Britney Spears, "The Partridge Family" star David Cassidy, the Jonas Brothers, Backstreet Boys and 'NSYNC.

Why? Mostly because of Jones' knee-buckling performance of "Girl" on a 1971 episode of "The Brady Bunch," during which he agreed to be Marcia's date to the prom. That appearance on "Getting Davy Jones," by the way, is among the most popular "Brady" episodes of all time.

Jones never quite broke out of the Monkees orbit, playing the hits until just a week ago at a February 19 solo gig in Oklahoma. According to accounts, he still had that smile on his face, that wriggle in his hips and that glimmer in his eye. While former boy banders like Justin Timberlake seem at times conflicted over being pigeonholed for what they used to be, well into his fifth decade as a boy-star-turned-man, Jones kept the dream alive, for us, and for himself.

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Davy Jones, Monkees Lead Singer, Dead At 66

29 Feb 2012 15:08:05 EST

Jones died Wednesday from a heart attack.
By Gil Kaufman

Davy Jones, lead singer of 1960s made-for-TV pop group the Monkees, died Wednesday (February 29) at age 66. According to TMZ, Jones died of a heart attack at his home in Florida.

The baby-faced singer born David Thomas Jones in Manchester, England, on December 30, 1945, began his career as a child actor, appearing in a British daytime soap opera and radio plays and taking a brief detour into being a horse jockey before landing a Tony nomination at age 16 for his role as the Artful Dodger in a Broadway production of "Oliver!" (In a rock and roll footnote, glam-rock icon David Bowie adopted his stage name after worrying that his birth name, David Jones, would cause confusion with the then emerging stage star and future Monkees singer.)

In an ironic twist of fate given his future stardom, he appeared alongside his "Oliver!" castmates on the December 1964 episode of "The Ed Sullivan Show" that featured the legendary American TV debut of the Beatles.

He launched a solo recording career in 1965, the same year he was chosen to fill out the cast of the TV musical sitcom that would launch him to global fame. The group was put together by producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, who were inspired by "A Hard Day's Night" to assemble a Beatles-like band to provide the face for their slapstick series. He appeared alongside American musicians Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork, providing lead vocals for many of the band's most iconic tunes, including "Daydream Believer," "Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)" and "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You."

The group's run on TV lasted from 1966 to 1968, and though the bandmembers initially were barred by producers from writing and performing their own music, as time went on, they took over more of the musical reins and the songs took on an increasingly psychedelic tone. Along the way, they scored hits such as "Last Train to Clarksville," "I'm a Believer" and "Pleasant Valley Sunday," with each bandmember contributing vocals but Jones emerging as the "cute one" and de facto maracas-shaking frontman alongside drummer Dolenz.

With wacky premises that presaged the music-video boom of the 1980s, the show was a hit and the band went on tour, eventually breaking from the show's musical producer, Don Kirshner, to explore increasingly esoteric sounds. The show was canceled in 1968, and Jones appeared alongside his bandmates in the trippy feature-film flop "Head," which was co-written by then-unknown actor Jack Nicholson.

The "Pre-Fab Four" limped along for several more years, but after the loss of Tork and Nesmith, Dolenz and Jones were left to tour as a duo for much of the 1970s. The bandmates would continue to reunite in spurts — with the exception of Nesmith — and in 1986, MTV helped revive interest in the group with Monkees marathons that rebooted interest and once again sent Jones back on the road.

Jones continued to tour and perform on TV and in films throughout the 1980s and '90s, appearing on "My Two Dads," "SpongeBob SquarePants" and "Sabrina the Teenage Witch," releasing his final album, the cover LP She, in 2009.

Jones was slated to mount a U.K. tour in honor of the group's 45th anniversary in May along with Tork and Dolenz.

Share your memories of Jones and the Monkees in the comments below.

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Aaron Carter, LFO To Join Backstreet Boy Howie D. At Lupus Benefit

24 May 2001 17:56:00 EDT

Jon Secada, Monkees, Youngstown among other artists set to play June 1 event in Orlando, Florida.
By Teri vanHorn

LFO, Jon Secada, Aaron Carter and the Monkees will help Backstreet Boy Howie Dorough raise money for his lupus foundation in his hometown of Orlando, Florida, on June 1.

Bringing together pop stars from every decade since the '60s, the concert at Hard Rock Live will also feature performances by Youngstown, Deborah Gibson, the Pointer Sisters and Rascal Flatts. The show is part of a two-day event dubbed Lupus 2001, benefiting the Dorough Lupus Foundation, a nonprofit founded by Dorough and his family after his sister, Caroline Dorough-Cochran, died from the disease in 1998. Dorough will host the concert and may join his guests onstage for the encore, but he'll save his solo set for the following night at SeaWorld. That event will include a dinner and an auction featuring music, film, fashion and sports memorabilia, plus a killer whale show and fireworks.

The Dorough Lupus Foundation seeks to aid victims of lupus who cannot afford treatment, increase awareness about the disease and help fund research for a cure. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster, with two-day combo tickets going for $300 each, concert-only tickets for $175 and passes for the auction and dinner for $150.

Lupus 2000, held in Universal City, California, on June 25, featured such performers as Gibson, Tito Puente Jr. and O-Town and raised $100,000 (see "Backstreet's Howie Raises $100,000 For Charity").

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The Edge Bows To Davy Jones

24 Jun 1997 07:55:00 EDT

June 24 [7:55 EDT] -- Just how happy was the Edge to be joined by Monkees frontman Davy Jones Saturday night?

Happy enough that the U2 guitarist dropped to his knees and bowed repeatedly to the 60s teen idol while Jones belted out the Monkees' hit "Daydream Believer." [800k QuickTime]

As we reported yesterday, Jones popped up as a surprise guest at Saturday night's U2 show at the Los Angeles Coliseum, and joined the Edge during the guitarist's nightly karaoke performance. Throughout the tour, the Edge has taken to the stage to offer up karaoke renditions of "Sweet Caroline," "New York, New York," and (of course) "Daydream Believer."

When Jones (who now lives in L.A.) accepted the band's invitation and turned up on stage Saturday night, it was hard to tell who was happier, Jones or the Edge.

U2's PopMart tour moves on to Madison, Wisconsin on Wednesday, and then heads to Chicago and Foxboro, Massachusetts before departing for Europe.

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U2 Joined By Singing Monkee

23 Jun 1997 10:00:00 EDT

June 23 [10:00 EDT] -- U2 was joined on stage by ex-Monkee Davy Jones Saturday in L.A.

U2 played the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles Saturday night, and the show featured a special guest, ex-Monkee Davy Jones. If you haven't seen the Pop Mart tour, U2 guitarist The Edge regularly performs a karaoke version of the Monkees' hit "Daydream Believer," singing to a tape with the lyrics on the screen while the rest of the band takes a break mid-set.

This time, The Edge sang the first few lines and was then joined by Jones, the tune's original vocalist. Jones finished off the song, much to the delight of the audience‹and much to the delight of Jones.

The show was opened by Rage Against the Machine. U2 now travels to Madison, Wisconsin, for June 25 and then on to multiple shows in Chicago and Boston before heading to Europe.

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