Monkees’ Micky Dolenz Celebrates The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper at Sirius

By M.A. Cassata

Monkee Micky Dolenz, in New York Friday, celebrated The Beatles’ re-release of their watershed album Sgt. Pepper with a mammoth interview on Rolling Stone Radio via SiriusXM. Interviewed by three of the magazine’s stalwart writers, Brian Hiatt, Andy Greene and Rob Sheffield, they peppered Dolenz with questions about his visits to Abbey Road Studios when the Fab Four were in the midst of recording their masterpiece and his memories of that album.

David Crosby, who Dolenz knows well, had just called in.

Says Dolenz, “I had met Paul at a photo op arranged by Apple and he asked me if I wanted to drop by the studios the next day to hear what they were doing. The next day I went to the studio, via a huge limo which they provided and expected some sort of major love-fest. But when I got there, it was the just the four guys in t-shirts, and, George Martin in a three-piece suit and John pointed up to Martin who hit the control and out came ‘Good Morning, Good Morning’.”

That moment was so etched in Dolenz’s memory that years later, when he recorded his Remember solo album, he did his own version.

Dolenz also noted that when he wrote and directed the very last Monkees TV-episode, The Frodis Caper, he felt that “Good Morning Good Morning” would work terrifically well in a segment of the show. Apple was called and surprisingly, as the group had never before granted any usage of their music, they said yes.

Dolenz also recalled being in the video for their “A Day In The Life.” He also mentioned that the Beatles had never performed that song live.

Hiatt also recalled that at their first meeting, Paul and Micky had reportedly watched a defective TV for hours on end. Dolenz said that the story was only half right: they had watched TV, but it was working fine, and revealed that in those days when your turned the knob to switch channels there was a moment when you got snow; images from both channels. Dolenz said thy watched that for hours!

Dolenz also well recalled when the album first came out, “A runner was sent to buy one, brought it back to the TV-set and we actually interrupted production on the show, to listen to it. We immediately recognized the caliber of the music. It was quite a moment.”

Dolenz also recorded a short interview on Sirius’ newly launched Beatles-channel.