Bobby Hart, who co-wrote many Monkees hits, dies at age 86

Musician-songwriter Bobby Hart, half of a composer duo who penned the Monkees’ theme song and many of the group’s mega-hits , has died.

He was 86.

His friend and co-author, Glenn Ballantyne, said Hart died at home in Los Angeles , amid a health decline that began after he broke his hip last year.

Hart and collaborator Tommy Boyce each had numerous music credits to their name when they were tapped to help create a television show promoted by Don Kirchner titled “The Monkees” that would comedically chronicle “the misadventures of a struggling rock group ,” as IMDB described it. Though Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork were actors hired to play the roles, they quickly became a pop phenomenon in their own right, thanks in no small part to Hart and Boyce.

Togeth