TLDR;
- The Monkees’ Micky Dolenz made songs with a rock star.
- Dolenz said that rock star made a 1960s-style song that was so much better than other songs of its type.
- The song was from the soundtrack of a popular 1990s movie.
During the 1960s, The Monkees gave the world some of the most famous bubblegum pop songs of all time. The Monkees’ Micky Dolenz named one of the few 1960s-style songs he enjoys. Notably, the song was from a famous 1990s movie.
The rock star behind a famous movie song later worked with The Monkees
There was a little bit of a revival of 1960s media in the 1990s. During the 1990s, Mike Myers starred in the first Austin Powers movie, Gus Van Sandt remade Psycho, and Oliver Stone made a film about The Doors. One of the films that was part of that trend was Tom Hanks‘ That Thing You Do!
That Thing You Do! is a film about a fictional 1960s one-hit wonder band called The Wonders. The band is known for a song called “That Thing You Do!” The movie references actual 1960s groups including The Beatles and The Monkees.
Notably, the song “That Thing You Do!” was written by Adam Schlesinger. Schlesinger was the frontman of Fountains of Wayne. Fountains of Wayne is most known for the hit “Stacy’s Mom.” Schlesinger would later produce The Monkees’ 50th anniversary album Good Times!
What The Monkees’ Micky Dolenz thought of the title song from ‘That Thing You Do!’
During a 2016 interview with The Baltimore Sun, The Monkees’ Peter Tork discussed Good Times! “When [Rhino Entertainment] saw the 50th anniversary coming up, they knew that there were several of these indie guys that were interested in being part of The Monkees, that had been influenced by The Monkees,” he said. “And they were able to reach Adam Schlesinger, who of course wrote the theme music for That Thing You Do!, that wonderful song that so perfectly captures both the ’60s and brings the ’60s into the modern era. So he was the right man for the job, straddling the two eras very readily.”
In a 2016 interview with Rolling Stone, Dolenz discussed his opinion on Schlesinger. “He wrote ‘That Thing You Do!,’ which is a perfectly balanced piece of music,” Dolenz said. “It manages to not be derivative, yet completely evocative of the time it’s supposed to represent. It’s one of the few neo-’60s songs I’ve ever heard that actually worked.”
The way listeners reacted to The Wonders’ ‘That Thing You Do!’
“That Thing You Do!” became a minor hit in the United States. It peaked at No. 41 on the Billboard Hot 100. It stayed on the chart for 15 weeks.
“That Thing You Do!” charted higher in the United Kingdom. According to The Official Charts Company, the song reached No. 22 in the U.K., lasting on the chart for three weeks. The song’s parent album, That Thing You Do!: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, did not chart there.
“That Thing You Do!” found an audience — and that audience included Dolenz.
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