I'm a Believer: My Life of Monkees, Music, and Madness - Softcover

Dolenz, Mickey; Bego, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1562828479 ISBN 13: 9781562828479

Publisher: Hyperion, 1993

Synopsis

In fascinating, star-studded anecdotes, original Monkee Mickey Dolenz takes readers from his starring role at age 12 as TVs Circus Boy to the open casting call that brought the Monkees together, through the creative conflicts that finally drove them apart.

About this title

About the Author

Mark Bego is the author of over 40 best-selling books on rock and rool and show business, including two New York Times Best Sellers, a Los Angeles Times Best Seller, and a Chicago Tribune Best SEller, three million-sellers, and two half-million selling titles. With over 10 million books in print, he is acknowledged as the best-selling biographer in the rock and pop music field. His biographies have included Madonna (0815410514), Cher: If You Believe (0815411537) and Bette Midler (081541232).

From Kirkus Reviews

A good-natured, superficial show-biz bio by the drummer of The Monkees, written with veteran rock-'n'-roll chronicler Bego (Aretha Franklin, 1989, etc.). From the start, Dolenz rode life like the Last Train to Larksville. In the 50's, as a ``hyperactive boy's boy,'' he snared the title role in the smash sitcom Circus Boy. A decade later came the Monkees, four zany young lads--from Hollywood, not Liverpool- -who answered the British rock invasion with their own American TV series. Producer (and future film director) Bob Rafelson knew what he was doing: The Monkees zoomed up the Nielsen ratings, and the group's early releases, penned by Neil Diamond (``I'm a Believer'') and other great songwriters, bumped the Beatles off the top of the charts. Why the clamor? Because, says Dolenz, The Monkees was the first TV show ``to depict young people on their own'': It was ``My Three Sons without Fred MacMurray.'' The show also gave birth to a new method of record promotion, through national TV rather than local radio--the first glimmer of the MTV revolution. For Dolenz, the series led to a magic sleigh ride: smoking hashish with Paul McCartney; starring in Head, a movie scripted by Jack Nicholson; bedding every starlet in sight. When the group split up, Dolenz hit the rocks--divorce, depression--but, more recently, spearheaded the Monkees' ``incredibly successful'' reunion (the top-grossing tour of 1986); he now works as a British TV director. Monkeyshines, nothing more, but it makes you want to hear those tunes again. (Sixteen pages of b&w photographs--not seen) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Hyperion
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 1562828479
• ISBN 13: 9781562828479
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288