I remember this one off of their show. I like the vocals in the chorus with this one.
Valleri has an interesting history. This song was brought aboard at the very beginning of the Monkees…but it ended up being their last top ten hit. It was recorded with studio musicians at first and placed in a show but…not on an album because it was being saved for the second one. By the time the thought of using it came around…the Monkees had a new contract and per the contract… they had to play on and produce their album so this version of Valleri couldn’t be used.
When it was played in the show… the public wanted a record of it but now the Monkees would have to record it themselves because of the uprising they did to demand to play on their own records.
A couple of disc jockeys recorded the song off of the show and began to play it. They were playing this taped TV version on their radio shows, something that would happen many years later with the Friends theme. Listeners to the stations airing the rough mix of “Valleri” started writing the Monkees’ distributor Colgems Records, asking where they could buy a copy of the record that they had just heard.
Valleri was re-recorded and produced by the Monkees and Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart the songwriters. It was released as a single in March 1968, 13 months after it was first performed on the TV show. Soon after the release, the Monkee’s TV show was canceled and they released their movie and LP Head. Peter Tork left the group in December 1968.
Valleri peaked at #3 in the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, #4 in New Zealand, and #12 in the UK in 1968. The album The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees peaked at #3 on the Billboard Album Charts and #6 in Canada.
Valleri
Valleri I love my Valleri
There’s a girl I know who makes me feel so good
And I wouldn’t live without her, even if I could
They call her Valleri
I love my Valleri
Oh yeah, come on
She’s the same little girl who used to hang around my door
But she sure looks different than the way she looked before
I call her Valleri
I love my Valleri
Valleri I love my Valleri
I love my Valleri
I need ya, Valleri
….
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It’s a good tune. Boyce and Hart wrote good stuff. The Monkee’s should have let the Wrecking Crew do all the playing.
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I’m surprised Boyce and Hart wasn’t more successful on their own.
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Yeah they were bubblegum pop song writers (and performers) par excellence. All them hooks, handclaps, up beats, driving drums. I’m ashamed to admit it, I like some bubblegum! ‘Alice Long’ ‘I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight,’ great fun records. But I don’t rate ‘Valleri’ anywhere near their best and that was huge. Musta been the Monkees cachet.
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I like some also Obbverse…the Bubblegum song that has stuck with me is Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes.
No it wasn’t a Pleasant Valley Sunday by no means.
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Not sure why. They worked exclusivley with the Wrecking Crew guys and label producers writing songs for everyone else. I don’t recall them ever touring or putting out much music. I saw them on an episode of Bewitched back in the 60s. Long hair and bucksin jackets. They did a song with Samantha. Those were the days.
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In the mid seventies they teamed with Davy Jones and Dolenz but that didn’t make it too far.
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I just watched this episode of the Monkees TV show a week or two ago. The Monkees tv shows are surprisingly interesting to watch today. I always liked Valleri.
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I like watching them also. I can’t binge them but I like a few a month. The comedy is much better than I thought. They have some clever dialog. The music of course I really like.
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Yes to all of that. The Decades TV channel ran a Monkees marathon one weekend in 2020, and I dvr’ed most of the episodes. I enjoy watching an episode occasionally.
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When this song was popular, I had a crush on this girl named Valarie, and it wasn’t like I loved my Valarie, because I was too shy to tell her my feelings, but this song always makes me think of her.
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Certain songs trigger memories of different girls for me…sometimes songs that don’t have anything to do with love…like “Going For A Soda”
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Because of a past relationship, ‘Valerie’s not a popular name in this household, LOL. Oddly, I’d never heard the song until I was with someone named that about 12 or 13 years back, but I find it pretty catchy. I like Steve Winwood’s song of the same name better though. Wild story about it becoming a hit though… imagine DJs taping off a TV and playing it! How bad must the sound quality have been? If people wanted to hear it like that, it was bound to be a smash hit when recorded properly.
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LOL… The sound quality had to be bad but it was coming over the static of AM radio…maybe that covered it up.
When I saw that Winwood had a song called Valleri…I thought he was covering this one…because I knew it since I was a tot.
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Yeah, I think Dave and I covered this topic:’Nope, not THAT song with THAT girls name, buddy.’ No Gilbert O’Sullivan’s ‘Clair’ in these four walls!
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LOL… The one I can’t play is “Angie” by the Stones…the wife frowns on that…so…I do sneak it in sometimes.
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Love that guitar lick at the beginning and several other times through the song. The song is real simple, but it has a big sound that I’ve always liked.
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Yes…that is some great guitar. Louie Shelton played that part on both recordings. Mike was faking that part on video.
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Can’t go wrong with a bit of Monkees! How I wish I could get hold of the TV series on DVD – I still love their music today, and they take me right back to watching them on a Saturday evening as a kid …. an the bubble gum cards I used to collect. 🙂
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They were my first band when I was 7…from them I went to the Beatles, Stones, and Who. Fun show…I do watch them from time to time. That sucks you cannot get those.
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Love Valleri. One of my fave Monkees tracks it has thast stroppy tuneful Im Not Your Steppin Stone vibe with a great riff to boot. That chorus is still exciting. And that Steve Winwood song is insipid in comparison. Shame its the famous song…..
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I do like the chorus a lot. Whoever arranged the vocals did a great job
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