Scroll down for a bit of nostalgia (and a rather bad song entitled, “Gonna Buy Me a Dog”):

Surprisingly, the song was written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, prolific songwriters with at least three top-40 hits to their credit. They also wrote for the The Monkees, a band originally created to be a comedy TV series. Some 437 people with musical skills auditioned for the series, including  Stephen Stills, Danny Hutton (who later became part of Three Dog Night), Harry Nilsson, and Paul Williams. In the end, Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith got the parts.

There is irony in this story, staring with the very first bit of dialogue in the video having to do with getting rich. The guy in the hat, Michael Nesmith, was the son of Bette Nesmith Graham who invented and held the patent for Liquid Paper. A year after “Gonna Buy Me a Dog, was released (1966), Liquid Paper had grown into a million-dollar business. Mom was rich, and then Michael got rich. His current net worth is $50 million.

Another twist: The four guys in the band had precious little experience playing together, and they struggled to make the music for the show. For most of the first season’s songs, the guys only sang, and didn’t play on the records. They slowly improved, and in 1967, The Monkees outsold both The Beatles and The Rolling Stones—combined. Mind you, this was the same year of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Between the Buttons, and Their Satanic Majesties Request. That said, part of The Monkey’s pop hits portfolio included “Daydream Believer, “Last Train to Clarksville” and “I’m a Believer,” each a great song in its own right. The group earned two Emmys and sold 50 million records.

Were any of them dog people?

Davy Jones, the “cute one,” was a German Shepherd guy, the dog below, Suzy, was Jones’ second GSD, though possible the only male dog he owned with a female name. He and Suzy appeared in a whole lot of teen magazines!

 

Michael Nesmith also had a GSD named “Frak,” though later he would have Pointers:

 

Micky Dolenz has had a number of pets, many of them dogs with whom he was photographed, and as far as we can tell, each was a loveable mutt.

Peter Tork, who died just last year at the age of 77,  was a cat person.