Bobby Hart, the Grammy-nominated songwriter whose work with Tommy Boyce helped shape the sound of 1960s pop and powered The Monkees’ rise to fame, has died at 86.
His health had been in decline over the past year following complications from a broken hip.
Hart met Tommy Boyce in 1959. Boyce first played guitar for Hart, who was pursuing a solo pop career, but the two quickly discovered a greater chemistry as a songwriting team.
Their first major break came in 1964 when they wrote Lazy Elsie Molly for Chubby Checker. That same year, they scored their first hit with Jay & The Americans’ Come A Little Bit Closer.
They went on to write (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone, first recorded by Paul Revere and the Raiders but made famous by The Monkees. A decade later, it found new life when the Sex Pistols turned it into a punk anthem.
Hart also co-wrote Hurt So Bad, a hit for Little Anthony & The Imperials in 1964 and later covered by Linda Ronstadt in 1980.
Among their biggest successes was The Monkees’ first No. 1 single, Last Train to Clarksville.
Stepping Into the Spotlight
Boyce and Hart also found success as performers. In 1967 they cracked the Top 10 with I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight, followed by the Top 40 hit Alice Long the next year.
After The Monkees disbanded in the mid-1970s, Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones joined forces with Boyce and Hart to form Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart. The group released a self-titled studio album in 1976 and a live album in 1981.
Hart pursued a solo career, releasing The First Bobby Hart Solo Album in 1979. In 1983, he earned an Academy Award nomination for Over You, featured in the Robert Duvall film Tender Mercies.
Tommy Boyce died in 1994 at the age of 55. With Hart’s passing, the last living link to the celebrated Boyce and Hart duo is gone.
Micky Dolenz, now the sole surviving member of The Monkees, paid tribute on Facebook:
“Another great is gone. Bobby Hart, who along with Tommy Boyce, penned and produced some of The Monkees’ greatest hits not only made a vital contribution to the popular success of The Monkees, but even more importantly to the essence, the very spirit of the entire venture.
His talent, charisma, good humor and calmness in the face of what at times was nothing less than a maniacal roller coaster ride often brought a sense of peace that heartened everyone around him. He was the stillness that is the eye of the hurricane.
Rest in peace, Bobby.”
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