Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/08/05/covers-of-im-a-believer.html
…
this was out of print for a long, long time, but just recently got a 3 disc collection re-issue
Monkeys perhaps?
And pay no attention to the organ grinder.
I always associated this song with The Monkees. I don’t think I ever realized Neil Diamond performed it, never mind wrote it.
Edit: Yeah, it was written by Neil for the Monkees so technically I think their version is OG and Neil’s is a cover:
I agree though that the Hammond organ is an essential component.
I’m NOT a believer, right now.
Cheer up, sleepy Jean!
Might be in there somewhere or not…
The last train to Clarksville for you Mister / Mrs.
Some Monkees trivia here … did you know the first use of a Moog in a pop song was the Monkees with Nightly Daily? Also Paul Beaver did the programming who is also worked on the Main Street Electrical Parade.
For the longest time, I thought the lyric was…
“…disappointment honey on my dreams…”
So “Disappointment Honey” was often what covered unsatisfactory things in my life, up to and including the fact that that is not, in fact, the lyric.
Monkees forever!
That and the outdoor ice-skating rink in my hometown park, with the music blaring from a few speakers high up on poles at the edges of the rink, skating round and round with one’s fellow sixth-graders, too young to really understand the social scene but feeling the excitement of it all, periodically going into the warming house to put more money in the juke box to hear it yet again…To this day I can’t hear the Monkees’ version without those memories arising, most particularly brought on by the organ
please forgive me.
Perhaps my favourite version. Robert Wyatt. When he sings I couldn’t leave her if I tried, I really believe it.
I, shall not
Good album title.
The fact that Vic reeves wasn’t the first link is a travesty.
Vic reeves and emf
Not even a Daydream Believer?
(ETA @mocon may have beaten me to it on an incidental technicality)
It sounds like a demo for The Monkeys.
If anyone is interested in covers of other Monkees songs, there’s this album/CD:
Here No Evil
Full disclosure, a friend of mine was involved in the production.