MUSIC HISTORY 101 SEPTEMBER 29, 1939 - Born on this day as Sidney Thomas Boyce in Charlottesville, Virginia: Songwriter TOMMY BOYCE (b. November 23, 1994) After high school, Boyce served in the US Army, then traveled to Los Angeles, California upon his discharge to attend college, pursue a singing career. After being rejected numerous times, Boyce took his fathers suggestion to write a song called Be My Guest for rock and roll star Fats Domino. He waited six hours at Dominos hotel room to present him with the demo, and got Domino to promise to listen to the song. The song hit #8 in the US and #11 in the UK, becoming Dominos biggest hit there in several years, and sold over a million copies. In 1959, he met singer/songwriter Bobby Hart and the following year played guitar on Harts single Girl In The Window, which was unsuccessful. In 1961, while still recovering from the injuries he suffered in a head-on collision in Los Angeles, Boyce was given the opportunity to go to New York and try to write a song for an up-and-coming young singer named Curtis Lee. Angel Eyes became a smash hit for Lee, his only song one to hit the top 40, it peaked at #6. After working New Yorks Brill building, composing such hit records as Come A Little Bit Closer for Jay & The Americans, a surprising turn sent the young men back west. Boyces girlfriend caught the eye of a music mogul who called in a favor and paid his way to leave town. Bobby Hart soon followed and in a matter of months they had landed a job scoring the The Days Of Our Lives, one of the longest running shows on television. In 1964 their partnership made a breakthrough with a song recorded by Chubby Checker, Lazy Elsie Molly. But their real breakthrough came when two aspirant film makers, Bob Rafelson & Bert Schneider, called on the dynamic duo who were signed as staff songwriters for Screen Gems Music, the music publishing arm of Columbia Pictures TV production arm, Screen Gems, they began to write songs for the soundtrack of the studios hit TV show The Monkees airing in primetime on NBC-TV atarting with the Theme From the Monkees. Boyce and Hart ahd earlier formed a band in the 1960s called the Candy Store Prophets. When Don Kirshner joined the production team for The Monkees, and Boyce and Harts roles as writers and producers for the band were threatened, they responded by inviting Kirshner to a private audition, where the Candy Store Prophets played a nonstop set of all the songs the pair had written for the show. Kirshner was so impressed, he immediately named Boyce and Hart as producers. The Prophets played most of the backing tracks for the first Monkees album, and later toured as their opening act. They produced and wrote a number of songs for the bands multi-platinum albums and Emmy-award-winning television series, including Last Train to Clarksville (gold, number one pop, fall 1966), (Im Not Your) Steppin Stone (the charting B-side of Im a Believer, also recorded by Paul Revere and the Raiders on their 1966 LP Midnight Ride), Words (the B-side of the million-selling number three pop hit Pleasant Valley Sunday), Valeri (gold, number three pop, early 1968), and Tear Drop City. The gentle ballad I Wanna Be Free is another popular Monkees track written by Boyce & Hart. The duo appeared on other hit TV shows produced by Screen Gems, ABC-TVs Bewitched and NBC-TVs I Dream of Jeannie. Soon after, Boyce & Hart became a household name, transforming their success as songwriters into becoming teen idols in their own right. The dream team scored four hit singles of their own, long before the trend of singer-songwriters had come into vogue. Boyce & Hart became a recording duo in 1967 signing with A&M Records, releasing three albums on A&M Records, Test Patterns, I Wonder What Shes Doing Tonight, and Its All Happening on the Inside (released in Canada as Which Ones Boyce and Which Ones Hart?). They also had five charting singles, the first one being Out & About b/w My Little Chickadee (#39). The most well-known was I Wonder What Shes Doing Tonight, which reached #8 in early 1968,sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. Another Top 40 hit was Alice Long (Youre Still My Favorite Girlfriend) (#27). Goodbye Baby (I Dont Want to See You Cry) b/w Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows; became the title theme of the sequel to The Trouble With Angels. Success flowed effortlessly for the duo throughout the late 1960s, even guest-starring on such television shows as Bewitched, I Dream Of Jeannie, and The Flying Nun in addition to becoming familiar faces on the variety and talk show circuit. Boyce & Hart toured with the Monkees in the 70s and recorded with some of the groups members on albums as Dolenz, Jones, Boyce, and Hart. The combination of a new elevated consciousness and a grand twist of fate got them involved in a political campaign to elect Robert F. Kennedy and then, following his demise, the role of leaders in a movement to lower the national voting age to eighteen. However, the same force which brought them into this worthy cause would also lead the duo to their break-up. They became managed by a brilliant con artist who renegotiated all of their deals to more favorable terms, but then left them high and dry, absconding with a sizable chunk of their money. Just as the sixties ended, so did their partnership. Each went on to further successes, but never found the same magic that embodied their first fame. Their lasting legacy became a brilliant catalog of songs, but more importantly, an enduring contribution to the American political landscape. They changed lives and they changed law. During the late 1970s Tommy moved to England, where he continued his success as a writer/producer. He made a dynamic impact in the UK music world producing such artists as Iggy Pop, Meat Loaf, The Pleasers, The Darts and Showaddywaddy. Tommy once again witnessed his songs hit the charts. In 1979 Boyce formed his own band, called The Tommy Band, and toured the UK as support to Andrew Matheson (ex-Hollywood Brats). The tour was largely ignored by the public especially in Middlesbrough where reportedly just one person paid to watch the show. Boyce and Hart reunited during the 1980s resurgence of the Monkees, and performed live. During that same year, The First Bobby Hart Solo Album was released in Europe on WEA. The group included: Bobby Hart: keyboard and vocals, Victor Vanacore: keyboards, Larry Taylor: bass, Vince Megna: guitar, John Hoke: drums, and Blue Jay Patton: saxophone. Five years later, in 1983, Hart was nominated for an Oscar for his song Over You, written for the film Tender Mercies. In the 1980s he moved back to America and eventually settled in Nashville, Tennessee, where he continued to write songs and delight audiences with surprise guest performances in the local clubs. Tommy recorded two solo albums: Christopher Cloud - Blown Away, featuring members of the group AIM, and the Australian four-track EP Tommy Boyce and His Rockin Sixties Band Boyce, also appeared on TV talk shows sharing his travails with depression, but succumbed to the illness, committing suicide at his Nashville residence in 1994. He suffered a brain aneurysm in 1993 from which he never fully recovered, and shot himself to death due to his declining health. Bobby Hart remained his friend until the end. 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Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 22:19:58 +0000