Pleasant Valley Sunday

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"Pleasant Valley Sunday"
The Monkees single 04 Pleasant Valley Sunday.jpg
US single cover
Single by The Monkees
from the album Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.
B-side"Words"
ReleasedJuly, 1967
Recorded10, 11 & 13 June 1967
StudioRCA Victor Studios
Hollywood, CA
Genre
Length3:10
LabelColgems No. 1007
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Chip Douglas
The Monkees singles chronology
"A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You"
(1967) 		"Pleasant Valley Sunday"
(1967) 		"Daydream Believer"
(1967)

"Pleasant Valley Sunday" is a song by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, most famous for the version recorded by The Monkees in 1967. Inspired by a street named Pleasant Valley Way and their move to suburban West Orange, New Jersey, Goffin and King wrote the song about the dissatisfaction with the life in the suburbs.[3]

Having some differences compared to Goffin/King's original composition, the Monkees' version featured a well-known guitar intro played by Michael Nesmith and a reverb ending.[4] It became one of the most successful singles of the group, peaking at No. 3 and continuing their string of top 10 hits.[5] The song was included on Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd..[6]

Composition[]

Carole King, the co-writer of the song, stated in her autobiography that, after she and her then-husband, Gerry Goffin, earned enough money from songwriting royalties, they moved from New York to West Orange, New Jersey, but Goffin disliked their suburban life and wrote lyrics to document this feeling, that would eventually become "Pleasant Valley Sunday".[7] The lyrics were a social commentary on status symbols, creature comforts, life in suburbia and "keeping up with the Joneses".

There are many alternative interpretations about the lyrics of the song. In the book SuburbiaNation, Robert Beuka described its lyrics as "a wry commentary on the materialistic and anesthetized sensibilities of the adult generation in suburbia..."[8] and Brian Ward said in The 1960's, that the song was more associated with the New Left and the counterculture,[9] while Michael Nesmith jokingly stated in a 1978 interview with Blitz Magazine, that the song was written about "a mental institution."[10][11] Deanna D. Sellnow, author of The Rhetorical Power of Popular Culture, commented that, despite so many definitions about the song's meaning, its rhetorical message is actually "bleak".[12]

The song was composed in C Major.[13]

Recording[]

King made a demo of "Pleasant Valley Sunday" (also released in 2012's compilation album The Legendary Demos).[14]The Monkees decided to record a version of the song. It can be noted that their version is fairly different from King's demo for its faster arrangement and for some alterations in the bridge (“Creature comfort goals/Can only numb my soul/I need a change of scenery/My thoughts all seem to stray/To places far away/I don’t ever want to see/Another Pleasant Valley Sunday….” to “Creature comfort goals/They only numb my soul/And make it hard for me to see/My thoughts all seem to stray/To places far away/I need a change of scenery.”). Chip Douglas, the Monkees's producer in 1967, who was responsible for these changes, stated that King disapproved of them.[15]

"Pleasant Valley Sunday" was recorded on the Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. sessions. At the time, the Monkees, who had just fought for their right to exert more controls on records released in the Monkees' name and recorded an album, Headquarters, performed almost entirely by themselves, had used more session musicians in the album tracks. The basic track of "Pleasant Valley Sunday" was recorded in June 10, 1967, by members Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork on electric guitar and piano, respectively, with producer Douglas playing bass guitar and session musician Eddie Hoh on drums.[16] Another Monkee, Micky Dolenz, was present on the session and possibly played acoustic guitar.[4] The next day, Nesmith overdubbed another electric guitar part, while Hoh did overdubs of percussion (shaker and congas), and Bill Chadwick, a friend of the Monkees, did a second acoustic guitar.[4] The Monkees (including Davy Jones) recorded their vocals, with possible participation of Douglas, on June 13. Nesmith played another guitar part, while Hoh overdubbed more percussion. Dolenz sang lead, with Nesmith harmonizing with him.[4]

The distinctive guitar intro (and the main riff), was played by Nesmith in a Black Gibson Les Paul guitar, amplified by three Vox Super Beatles.[17] Douglas wrote the intro based on the Beatles "I Want to Tell You"'s riff.[18]

For an ending, Douglas and engineer Hank Cicalo decided to "keep pushing everything up", adding more and more reverberation and echo until the sound of the music became unrecognizable, before fading out the recording.[6] Separate mono and stereo versions were mixed for single and album records.

Release and reception[]

Billboard described the single as a "strong, easy rocker" that is "excitingly performed."[19] Monkee Peter Tork praised the vocal performances of both Dolenz and Nesmith.[20] The single peaked at No. 3 on the Hot 100 and was featured in the second season of their television series. The song also appeared on the fourth Monkees album, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd., in November 1967. While mono copies of the album had the same version heard on the single, stereo copies had a version using a different take of the first verse and an additional backing vocal during the break. (A different stereo mix, more closely replicating the single version, appeared on the 1991 Monkees box set Listen to the Band.)

In February 1986, MTV featured a marathon of episodes of the series titled Pleasant Valley Sunday, which sparked a second wave of Monkeemania. The reunited Dolenz, Tork, and Davy Jones, already on tour, went from playing small venues to playing arenas and stadiums in the following weeks.

The B-side to the single, "Words", was written by Boyce and Hart. On the Pisces album the song is introduced by Tork's brief spoken-word track "Peter Percival Patterson's Pet Pig Porky".

An early demo version of the song with vocals by Carole King was released on her 2012 compilation, The Legendary Demos.[21]

Personnel[]

Credits from Andrew Sandoval.[4]

Session musicians and production staff[]

Chart performance[]

In popular culture[]

References[]

  1. ^ Friedlander, Matt (September 12, 2016). "It's the 50th Anniversary of 'The Monkees' TV Debut". ABC News. Retrieved May 29, 2020.
  2. ^ Papadatos, Markos (March 8, 2019). "Review: The Monkees honor musical legacy of Peter Tork at The Paramount". Digital Journal. Retrieved May 29, 2020.
  3. ^ La Gorce, Tammy. "New Jersey's Magic Moments", The New York Times, October 30, 2005. Accessed May 12, 2021.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Sandoval, Andrew (2005). The Monkees : the day-by-day story of the '60s TV pop sensation. Internet Archive. San Diego : Thunder Bay Press. pp. 114-115297. ISBN 978-1-59223-372-4.
  5. ^ "The Monkees". Billboard. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b "Pisces, Aquarius". albumlinernotes. Retrieved May 14, 2021.
  7. ^ King, Carole (April 10, 2012). A Natural Woman: A Memoir. Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4555-1259-1. Gerry did not enjoy living in the suburbs. An opinion he vigorously documented in a song called "Pleasant Valley Sunday".
  8. ^ Beuka, R. (April 30, 2016). SuburbiaNation: Reading Suburban Landscape in Twentieth Century American Film and Fiction. Springer. p. 136. ISBN 978-1-349-73210-4.
  9. ^ Ward, Brian (November 2, 2009). The 1960s: A Documentary Reader. John Wiley & Sons. p. 50. ISBN 978-1-4051-6329-3.
  10. ^ S. A. Dispoto. "blastintopastmikenesmith". Archived from the original on August 30, 2009. Retrieved October 1, 2016.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  11. ^ "Photographic image of Blitz article" (JPG). S-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com. Retrieved October 1, 2016.
  12. ^ Sellnow, Deanna D. (2010). The Rhetorical Power of Popular Culture: Considering Mediated Texts. SAGE. p. 116. ISBN 978-1-4129-1541-0.
  13. ^ "Key & BPM/Tempo of Pleasant Valley Sunday by The Monkees | Note Discover". www.notediscover.com. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
  14. ^ Carole King - Pleasant Valley Sunday (1966 Demo), retrieved May 12, 2021
  15. ^ Pitt, Bob (June 11, 2020). "An overdub has no choice — the Monkees and the making of Pleasant Valley Sunday". Medium. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
  16. ^ "Today in Monkees History: The recording of "Pleasant Valley Sunday" begins in 1967". The Monkees Live Almanac. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
  17. ^ "Monkees Instruments & Gear". The Monkees Live Almanac. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
  18. ^ Songfacts. "Pleasant Valley Sunday by The Monkees - Songfacts". www.songfacts.com. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
  19. ^ "Spotlight Singles" (PDF). Billboard. July 15, 1967. p. 16. Retrieved February 25, 2021.
  20. ^ "Micky and Michael's vocal work for "Pleasant Valley Sunday"". The Monkees Live Almanac. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
  21. ^ Lustig, Jay (October 21, 2014). "'Pleasant Valley Sunday', Carole King demo". NJArts.net. Retrieved April 21, 2019.
  22. ^ Greatest Hits (CD). The Monkees. Rhino. 1995.CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  23. ^ "flavour of new zealand - search listener". Flavourofnz.co.nz. Retrieved October 1, 2016.
  24. ^ "Official Charts - Top 40 Official UK Singles Archive - 26th August 1967". Official Charts Company. Retrieved May 15, 2011.
  25. ^ "Billboard.com - Hot 100 - Week of August 19, 1967". Billboard.com. Retrieved May 15, 2011.
  26. ^ "Top 100 Hits of 1967/Top 100 Songs of 1967". Musicoutfitters.com. Retrieved October 1, 2016.

Further reading[]

  • Lefcowitz, Eric (1985). The Monkees Tale. Berkeley, CA: Last Gasp Press. ISBN 0-86719-338-7.
  • Baker, Glenn A.; Czarnota, Tom; Hogan, Peter (1986). Monkeemania: The True Story of the Monkees. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-00003-0.

External links[]

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