A month later, it appears he has recuperated, and while official makeup dates for the remainder of their tour, including the New York City gig, have not been released, it appears that that show and others will be made up starting in January 2019.
Say what you want about the Monkees, but they seem to never stop, never go out of style, and I don't think that it is a stretch to say that more than 50 years after the fact, they stand as one of the most popular pop/rock acts of all time, cemented by the fact that in 2016, their "Good Times!" album of new and redone tunes actually hit the Top 15 on Billboard's Top Albums chart.
Anyway, let's go back in time to 1966 and 1967, the period where the Monkees were actually challenging the Beatles for the top spot in how many records they actually sold.
The Monkees' first hit, "Last Train to Clarksville," had hit the top spot on Billboard's Hot 100 chart in the fall of 1966, and all of a sudden, numerous cover versions of that tune, as well as many of the songs on the Monkees' debut LP--which also hit No. 1--were being covered by numerous artists. It kind of replicated what had happened when the Beatles burst on the American scene in 1964, to a somewhat lesser degree.
Anyway, somebody in the Monkees camp had the bright idea to make an answer song to "Clarksville," from the female perspective. Answer songs were in their waning days in 1966, but numerous such songs had come out, answering the likes of Roger Miller and even Gary Lewis and the Playboys' hit singles.
Linda Ball, who I don't have much information on, but I think might have been a Canadian singer, was recruited to warble the tune, where a couple of the lyrics were changed to reflect the female point of view, and the tempo was changed to reflect a more dour mood.
I am only surmising the history of this record, because I really have no idea of its true history, but I believe the single's original title duplicated that of the Monkees' tune, with "Last Train to Clarksville" at least coming out as a promotional record on Tower Records (not to be confused with the store) with that title. And it is a Jerden Records production; more about Jerden later.
I don't know if the label knew that they had a stinkeroo on its hands, but it did everything it could to try to promote this record to DJs--even its picture sleeve, on each side, trumpeted the fact that the single was connected to Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, the song's original writers and producers of this new version, and to the Monkees.
I believe that radio stations and DJs passed on this version of the song, and it was later officially released on Uptown Records, a small Canadian label, in Canada sometime in 1967, with a slight name change--it was now "(I'm On the) Last Train to Clarksville)--where it pretty much laid an egg.
And by the way, its B side is "I Wanna Be Free," probably the most covered song from their first album, with versions out there from the likes of Andy Williams and Trini Lopez.
I can only find a few other references to Linda Ball. The first is another promo single that I don't think ever officially came out, something called "Always You," which was released in 1967 on Jerden Records, a popular Pacific Northwest imprint that was the early recording home of the likes of Paul Revere and the Raiders.
In 1970, Ball was featured on the LP release "The Singing Parson," on the John Law Enterprises label. This was evidently a religious recording, with I assume Ball as the lead singer.
She evidently was also featured on a single "The End," but I don't have any more information on that recording.
That is it. I don't have any other information on Linda Ball.
The only reason that I bring this up is that in my record travels over the past few months, I finally located this single, The Tower version, and added it to my collection.
It is not one of those records that I desperately looked for over the years, but when I saw it, I knew I had to have it, and its reasonable price made the decision even easier.
If you want to hear Ball do her thing, you can hear her version of the Monkees hit at https://youtu.be/dgqRWsXjON0
You can also hear her warble "I Wanna Be Free" at https://youtu.be/pLrTSQ7tBFs
And some of the other songs I spoke about earlier are featured elsewhere on YouTube, so if you are interested, you can find them there.
So, the Linda Ball mystery continues, and if anyone has any further information on the singer, please let me know.
It is sort of like a needle in a haystack at this point, at least for me.
And today, Rolling Stone Magazine reported that Mike is recovering from quadruple bypass surgery after canceling the remaining June dates of the Mike & Micky Monkees shows. So for those who on Facebook grilled me when I said something to the effect of, "It can't be just a cold. He must be really sick," well, you get pummeled by the biggest wet noodle one can find. Nobody cancels a successful tour unless they are really sick, and with all the prayers sent for him on Facebook at the time the shows were scuttled, I really thought he was in b-----ad shape. But I also read that he is improving each day, so that is the best news possible.
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