Micky Dolenz
George Michael Dolenz Jr. is an American musician and actor. He was the drummer and one of two primary vocalists for the pop rock band the Monkees, and a co-star of the TV series The Monkees. Dolenz is the last surviving member of the group, following the deaths of Davy Jones, Peter Tork, and Michael Nesmith.
Life and entertainment career
Dolenz was born on March 8, 1945, at the Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Hollywood, the son of actors George Dolenz and Janelle Johnson. He has three sisters, Gemma Marie, Deborah, and Kathleen. Gemma's nickname, Coco, is a shortened form of "Coco Sunshine", a nickname given to her as a child by Micky. Coco was a frequent guest on the set of The Monkees TV show and sometimes a guest performer on records by the Monkees, singing background vocals or duetting with Micky. She often performs as a member of Micky's backing band during his concerts.Dolenz suffered from Perthes disease as a child, affecting his hip joint and right leg, leaving that leg weaker than the other. This resulted in Dolenz adapting an unorthodox drum setup – right-handed and left-footed – in his musical career.
''Circus Boy''
Dolenz began his show-business career in 1956 when he starred in a children's TV show called Circus Boy under the name Mickey Braddock. He played Corky, an orphaned water boy for the elephants in a one-ring circus at the start of the 20th century. The program ran for two seasons, after which Dolenz made sporadic appearances on network television shows and pursued his education. Dolenz went to Ulysses S. Grant High School in Valley Glen and graduated in 1962. In 1964, he was cast as Ed in the episode "Born of Kings and Angels" of the NBC education drama series Mr. Novak, starring James Franciscus as an idealistic Los Angeles teacher. Dolenz was attending college in Los Angeles when he was hired for the "drummer" role in NBC's The Monkees.Early musical career
Dolenz originally had his own rock band called "Micky and the One-Nighters" in the early- to mid-1960s with himself as lead singer. He had already begun writing his own songs. According to Dolenz, his band's live stage act included rock songs, cover songs, and some R&B. One of his favorite songs to sing was Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode", which he sang at his Monkees audition, resulting in his being hired as one of the cast/band members. He recorded two 45s in 1965 that went unreleased until the Monkees' success in 1967. Issued on the Challenge label, the recordings were "Don't Do It" b/w "Plastic Symphony III" and "Huff Puff" b/w "Fate ". Neither B-side on the Challenge 45s is by Dolenz, but rather a band later credited as The Obvious.The Monkees
In 1965, Dolenz was cast in the television sitcom The Monkees and became the drummer and a lead vocalist in the band created for the show. Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, writers of many of the Monkees' songs, observed quickly that when brought into the studio together, the four actors would try to make each other laugh. Because of this, the writers often brought in each singer individually. The antics escalated until Dolenz poured a cup of ice on Don Kirshner's head. At the time, Dolenz did not know Kirshner on sight.During tension-filled times, Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork voluntarily turned over lead vocal duties to Dolenz on their own songs.
Dolenz wrote a few of the band's songs, most prominently "Randy Scouse Git" from the album Headquarters. He provided the lead vocals for such hits as "Last Train to Clarksville", "Pleasant Valley Sunday", and "I'm a Believer".
Dolenz purchased the third modular Moog synthesizer sold commercially. His performance on the Monkees' song "Daily Nightly", from the album Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd., was one of the first uses of the synthesizer on a rock recording. He eventually sold his instrument to Bobby Sherman.
He is the last surviving member of the Monkees. He is the only member of the Monkees who was part of every lineup from the band's inception, and the only member with contemporary recordings of his vocals on all studio albums.
Solo MGM recordings
The Moog synthesizer that Dolenz had bought proved vital when he wrote a song entitled "Easy on You" in 1971; he began recording it in his home studio, playing acoustic guitar and drums, and using the Moog like a keyboard. With that song completed, he next invited former Monkee Peter Tork over to help with more recordings. Then, a fortuitous street encounter led to former Monkee stand-in David Price joining, as well as contributing a rock song he had written called "Oh Someone". With Dolenz on drums and vocals, Tork on bass, and Price on rhythm guitar, the song was completed in only two hours; subsequently, guitarist B. J. Jones came in two days later and added lead guitar. With these two songs recorded, Dolenz contacted his former high school friend Mike Curb, then the head of MGM Records; after playing the songs for Curb, Dolenz was immediately signed to MGM.Dolenz recorded and released songs for MGM for about three years. After the first year, Dolenz's friend Harry Nilsson contributed his song "Daybreak", also arranging and producing the recording, which included Keith Allison on guitar, former Monkees producer Chip Douglas on bass, and steel-guitarist Orville "Red" Rhodes.
By early 1974, with no chart successes to date, Dolenz headed to England, and with Tony Scotti, he cut four songs for MGM: two rock classics, "Splish Splash" and "Purple People Eater", as well as "I Hate Rock and Roll" and a new song, "Wing Walker". Meanwhile, Mike Curb left MGM and joined Warner Bros. Records. Dolenz's association with MGM then ended.
Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart
In part because of reruns of The Monkees on Saturday mornings and in syndication, The Monkees Greatest Hits charted in 1976. The LP, issued by Arista, was actually a repackaging of a 1972 compilation LP called Re-Focus that had been issued by Arista's previous label imprint, Bell Records, also owned by Columbia Pictures.Dolenz and Jones took advantage of this, joining ex-Monkees songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart to tour the United States. They could not use the Monkees name for legal reasons, but from 1975 to 1977, as the "Golden Hits of The Monkees" show, they successfully performed in smaller venues such as state fairs and amusement parks, as well as making stops in Japan, Thailand, and Singapore. They also released an album of new material, appropriately called Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart, and a live album, Concert in Japan, was released by Capitol in 1976.
A Christmas single was produced by Chip Douglas and released on his own label in 1976. The single featured Douglas's and Howard Kaylan's "Christmas Is My Time of Year", with a B-side of Irving Berlin's "White Christmas". Tork also joined Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart on stage at Disneyland on July 4, 1976, and also joined Dolenz and Jones on stage at the Starwood in Hollywood, California in 1977.
Notable stage work
In 1977, he performed with former bandmate Davy Jones in a stage production of the Harry Nilsson musical The Point! at London's Mermaid Theatre, playing and singing the part of the "Count's Kid" and the Leafman to Jones's starring role as Oblio. An original cast recording was made and released. The comedic chemistry of Dolenz and Jones proved so strong that the show was revived in 1978 with Nilsson inserting additional comedy for the two, plus two more songs, with one of them being sung by Dolenz and Jones together. The show was considered successful enough that another revival was planned for 1979, but it proved cost-prohibitive. After the show's run, Dolenz remained in England and began directing for stage and television, as well as producing several of the shows he directed.From August to September 2006, Dolenz played Charlemagne at the Goodspeed Opera House for the revival of the musical Pippin in East Haddam, Connecticut. He also toured in that role. Also in the mid-2000s, Dolenz played the role of Zoser in the Broadway production of Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida.
After Monkees television and film career
After The Monkees television show ended, Dolenz continued performing providing voice-overs for a number of Saturday-morning cartoon series including The Funky Phantom, Partridge Family 2200 A.D., The Scooby-Doo Show, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids, These Are the Days, Devlin, and Wonder Wheels. Dolenz starred in the first season of the animated series The Tick, voicing the titular protagonist's sidekick Arthur; he was replaced by Rob Paulsen for the remainder of the series. In 1972, Dolenz played Vance in the murder mystery film Night of the Strangler. He was featured in an episode of Adam-12, entitled "Dirt Duel", and an episode of Cannon, entitled "Bitter Legion". Dolenz provided the voice of Two-Face's twin henchmen Min and Max in the two-part episode "Two-Face" on Batman: The Animated Series. In a September 2006 radio interview, Dolenz reported that he was the current voice of Snuggle the Fabric Softener Bear at that time. In 2017, Dolenz returned to voice-over, providing the voice of Wendell the Love Grub, as well as singing the featured song, in the Cartoon Network series Mighty Magiswords half-hour episode, "The Saga of Robopiggeh!". Dolenz recorded the voice-acting remotely in New York weeks before his Good Times! tour.Both Dolenz and Michael Nesmith auditioned for the role of Arthur "The Fonz" Fonzarelli on Happy Days. Dolenz was reportedly a finalist for the role.
In 1975, Dolenz acted in Linda Lovelace for President, starring Linda Lovelace.
In 1994–95, Dolenz played in two episodes of the sitcom Boy Meets World; in the first one, he played Norm, a bandmate of Alan Matthews. In 1995, he joined Davy Jones and Peter Tork in episode eight of the third season, although they did not play the Monkees, per se – Dolenz's character is "Gordy", while Davy Jones is "Reginald Fairfield" and Tork is "Jedidiah Lawrence". However, at the climax of the program, the three are put on stage together and perform the classic Buddy Holly song "Not Fade Away", and the Temptations' "My Girl". As an inside joke, actor Dave Madden, who had played the manager on The Partridge Family, cameoed as a manager; he suddenly appears, wanting to handle the "new" group, and tells them that they "could be bigger than The Beatles", which they all scoff at.
In 2007, he appeared in Rob Zombie's remake of Halloween as Derek Allan, the owner of a gun shop.
On January 29, 2011, Dolenz appeared in the Syfy Channel film Mega Python vs. Gatoroid, alongside Debbie Gibson and Tiffany. On February 21, 2015, he had a cameo as himself in the Adult Swim TV special Bagboy. In 2017, he appeared as himself on the sitcom Difficult People.