"Tommy Boyce" The Chaotic Genius of The Monkees Hitmaker. The Full Story Is In My Book " There Ain't No Rules In Rock n Rol"l

This Deep Dive is only an overview the full more in depth story is in my book "There Ain't No Rules In Rock n Roll

Tommy Boyce was a wonderful complex character. So I wanted to capture the time I spent with him, without understating or exaggerating who he was. On completing my story, I contacted Caroline Boyce and asked her if she would be kind enough to read through my text and said if she wanted anything changed, to let me know. I also said, I would not publish if she was unhappy in anyway. I was so overwhelmed when I received Caroline’s endorsement, which confirmed I had captured the essence of Tommy. Caroline’s reply

"Hi Kenny “OH MY GOD … You had me laughing out loud as it wasn’t hard to visualize this at all; he was exactly like that in real life too and would give you the shirt “literally” off his back … life was magical, exciting and a performance and it was wonderful to experience the world through his eyes. This touched me sooooooooooooooooo much; well written really capturing the essence of Tommy thanks so very much for sharing this with me I absolutely loved reading it and it brought back some funny and super fond memories of Tommy; he truly was one of a kind with a giving heart that surpassed anyone’s I’ve ever known. He is so sadly missed so thanks for helping to keep his memory and legacy alive Thanks again, and have a happy holiday season and keep me posted xoxo”

Tommy Boyce’s first big success as a writer was Be My Guest for Fats Domino. Then in 1961 with Curtis Lee he co-wrote, Under The Moon of Love and Pretty Little Angel Eyes, which were produced by the legendary Phil Spector. In 1964 Tommy teamed up with Bobby Hart and had their first hit together with Lazy Elsie Molly by Chubby Checker, closely followed by Jay and the Americans’ Come A Little Bit Closer, a top 10 record later in the same year. In 1966 they recorded the demos for the pilot of a new TV show called The Monkees. TV producers Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson had the idea of casting a rock ‘n’ roll band that could star in its own weekly television series. Schneider and Rafelson placed an advert in Variety looking for four young men who would be selected to serve as members of the band: Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork, Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz all passed the auditions. There is a rumour that Charles Manson was one of the applicants that were turned down at the auditions, this is not true. The infamous Manson dabbled in writing songs and his musical career gained some notoriety after The Beach Boys and Guns ‘n’ Roses recorded songs he had written. Boyce and Hart were hired to write several songs and record the backing tracks and vocals for the band’s first album titled The Monkees. Davy, Micky, Peter and Michael replaced their vocals later Boyce and Hart went on to write over 300 songs and sell more than 42-million records.