“Tommy's got his guitar. I'm snapping my fingers. Tommy just started out; ‘Here we come, walking down the street’, 'cause that's what we were doing”: Bobby Hart on the evolution of the Monkees theme

Tommy Boyce, Davy Jones, Bobby Hart and Micky Dolenz.

There were four Monkees but a large part of what made the band and their music so beloved was the songwriting duo who fashioned a fair proportion of their best material: Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart.

It was Hart – who has died aged 86 – and Boyce who wrote Last Train To Clarksville, (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone, She, Valleri and, most memorably of all, the Monkees theme, which practically every person over 50 in both the US and UK is able to recite word for word (the show was still being repeated on British kids TV as late as 1984).