Monkees music legend behind some of their biggest hits dies at 86

Bobby Hart, a key part of the Monkees empire who teamed with Tommy Boyce on such hits as Last Train To Clarksville and I’m Not Your Steppin’ Stone, has died aged 86.

Hart died at his home in Los Angeles, according to his friend and co-author Glenn Ballantyne. He had been in poor health since breaking his hip last year.

Boyce and Hart were a prolific and successful team in the mid-1960s, especially for the Monkees, the made-for-television group promoted by Don Kirshner.

They wrote the Monkees’ theme song, with its opening shot, “Here we come, walkin’ down the street”, and enduring chant, “Hey, hey, we’re the Monkees”, and their first number one hit Last Train To Clarksville.

The Monkees’s eponymous, million-selling debut

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