I have commented on Boyce & Hart before check out the earlier entry for biographical detail.
This was their second album and the one that paid dividends….well at least with a Top 10 single. Oddly the album failed to chart, which would indicate they were thought of as a singles act by their label or by the public, or by both.
Boyce & Hart don’t deviate widely from their first album. That first album was a melting pot of pop sounds. Here they have focussed a little more.
They have increased the pop psych component and created something which would fit on any Monkees album of the period.
The second album is, usually, the hard album, assuming all the good / favoured / polished songs have been used on the first album.
It’s hard enough for a band to have twelve or so good songs for a debut album but that much more difficult to have another twelve (or eleven here) lying around for a follow up. So the writing pen is pulled out. And in the US pop world of the 60s (and 50s, and 70s) a follow up was expected, by the label, promptly.
Hence my statement that second albums are a hard follow up.
Boyce & Hart may have had their pens out and their musical brain in a high gear but they still reworked one (perhaps two songs) they had written for the Monkees (the second one may have been recorded by the Monkees first), and slipped in a cover.
But, what is striking is the single minded focus on pop for pop’s sake without missing out on what's going on around them, musically and socially.
That's what creates good pop.
And, importantly, for me, it is pop from an era where I think pop was supreme and at its widest and most ambitious …
ie: the era that created the best pop to my ears.
All songs written and produced, unless otherwise indicated, by Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart.
Tracks (best in italics)
Side One
- I Wonder What She's Doing Tonite? – The song was covered almost immediately by Gary Lewis and the Playboys (1968), Trini Lopez (1969) and then later by Young Fresh Fellows (2010). A great pop song about lovelorn insecurity (check out the cover art) and very, not surprisingly, Monkees-like. This is a lot of fun and would get people onto the dance floor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Wonder_What_She%27s_Doing_Tonight
- Pretty Flower – experimental rock goers bubblegum. The song wouldn't be out of place on a sitcom of the time even with the change of mood mid song.
- Teardrop City – The Monkees released this on their “Instant replay” album from 1969 where Boyce & Hart arranged and produced the song. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tear_Drop_City
- Love Every Day – a trippy ballad which is quite affecting.
- Two For The Price Of One – (Watson, Williams, Mundy) – from Larry Williams & Johnny Watson's soul funk album of the same name from 1967. The call and response if very "black" (as you would expect from the original version) and is fun here though not convincing. I think Boyce and Hart loved the ideology in the song, in that it seems to sum them up.
Side Two
- Goodbye Baby (I Don't Want To See You Cry) – part Moody Blues, part US bubblegum and part Rolling Stones off their "Their Satanic Majesties Request" (1967) album .
- I'm Digging You Digging Me – more big pop though this is like filler from the Monkees TV show. Catchy, but filler.
- Leaving Again – the romantic ballad, though darkly romantic here.
- The Countess – big Anglo pop …as good as anything from there in the same genre.
- Population – a protest song of sorts not unlike, thematically, from the Beach Boys the "socially aware" Beach Boys songs of the same time. This, though, has been attached to a nice garage-y melody and beat. The song name checks The Beach Boys ("Good Vibrations"), Elvis ("Baby, Let's Play House"), Allan Sherman ("Hello Mudduh, Hello Fadduh!") and probably others ….
- I Wanna Be Free – originally done by the Monkees on their debut album from 1966. The song was released as a single in some countries (it reached #17 in Australia in 1967). Quit beautiful (and different t to the Monkees version) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Wanna_Be_Free_(The_Monkees_song)
And …
Look, I'm not sure if it's my happy mood but this album is perfect pop (not a perfect album but well ahead of most). It may be better than their debut album. .. I'm keeping it.
Chart Action
US
Singles
1967 I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight #8
1968 Goodbye Baby (I Don't Want To See You Cry) #53
Album
—
England
nothing
Sounds
I Wonder What She's Doing Tonite?
Live
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfnlBXLHd08
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYwl0XzwEDk
mp3 attached
Pretty Flower
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND5tAhY_kmU
Teardrop City
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoFhgNDkk0M
Love Every Day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSyZ-irC1v0
Goodbye Baby (I Don't Want To See You Cry)
Live
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXMIEl8Yxow
The Countess
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MaRIuDWhG4
Population
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YphmSPb_dY
I Wanna Be Free
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy-EXvFTjnI
Others
Boyce & Hart doing the original Monkees theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPlwXw1em4U
from the 1968 film “Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows":
I’m not sure if they are in the clips
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5_WDhxJFDs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnHn2gTqrvc
Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiFhP_WZaOE
interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QfAQcUTMl4
Review
https://www.allmusic.com/album/i-wonder-what-shes-doing-tonite-mw0000549254
https://popdiggers.com/tommy-boyce-bobby-hart-i-wonder-what-shes-doing-tonite/
Bio
http://www.forgottenhits.com/the_music_of_tommy_boyce_and_bobby_hart
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/boyce-hart-mn0000095455/biography
http://articles.latimes.com/1994-11-26/news/mn-1559_1_tommy-boyce
interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzNUAbuvwBY
Website
http://www.officialboyceandhart.com/
https://www.facebook.com/boyceandhart/
Trivia
- The inspiration (for the album I presume) is listed on the back as Joel "the creeper" Sill and Abe "Flowers" Somer. I don't know what their functions were in 1968 but they became long term music business types.
