DAVY JONES IS “INCREDIBLE!” AGAIN!
By Bryan Reiser
pickprod@excite.com

Even though 63-year old Davy Jones hasn't been on the front pages of a teen magazine in years, his stature as a Teen Idol and Pop Icon continues unabated.

In December 2008, Yahoo.com posted a poll ranking the Top 25 Teen Idols of all-time. From 98 Degrees (number 25) to Britney Spears (number 2), the list included every teen sensation from Ricky Nelson to LeAnn Rimes to Taylor Swift to David Cassidy. However, the Number One Teen Idol of all-time was the short, British tambourine-player for The Monkees who swooned Marcia Brady's heart: Davy Jones.

In January 2009, Jones released INCREDIBLE! REVISITED!, a re-release of his "great lost" 1988 album, INCREDIBLE!. For the first time on CD, INCREDIBLE! was a bi-product of the astonishing success of The Monkees' 80s Reunion.

Fans have regarded INCREDIBLE! as "the greatest album of Jones' career" as well as an under-rated "pop music gem" of the 80s.

1986 saw the release of new Monkee material entering the charts while the back catalogue went platinum. TV reruns of the original series broke ratings on MTV and VH1 while their new videos became hits. The 80s brought them sell out appearances and whirlwind tours. One year after they'd completed the successful '86 "Here We Come Again" summer tour, the Monkee trio (Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork, and Davy Jones) began work on a new Monkees album and tour that would spark new Monkeemania for 1987. Concurrently, Jones worked on INCREDIBLE.

While new Monkees material released in 1986-87 charted and made news, INCREDIBLE! was overlooked in the pop music slipstream. Jones explained, "I couldn't put that much energy into promoting INCREDIBLE! Perhaps I should have. I just saw it as something to do for personal enjoyment and for the fans. Lord knows I spent enough money producing it, but the 80s were so busy for us. A lot of good things were set aside. My mind was on performing in 41,000 seat stadiums and having Monkees records all over the Top 40."
"INCREDIBLE! was really underrated," remarks singer/songwriter and longtime fan Chris Pick. "Compared to Jones' previous albums (i.e.: the self-titled Colpix and Bell label projects), INCREDIBLE! had a Top 40 sound. The music definitely fit for the time."

The project was produced and arranged under the supervision of Jones and co-produced by Mark Clarke, Joe Hardy and Robert Merrill, the project was recorded between February 1986 and July 1987 at Ardent/Memphis TN, Globe Studio/Sydney AUSTRALIA, Longview Farm/N. Brookfield MA, Luxury Audio Workshop/Las Vegas NV and Record Plant/New York NY. It was originally released by Dome Press/Hardor Incorporated in 1988 (SS 8091).

Mark Clarke, who was music director for Monkees' reunion projects, was a key player for INCREDIBLE! Clarke has played roles in many English classic rock portfolios: Colosseum, Ian Hunter/Mick Ronson projects, Natural Gas (the Badfinger/Humble Pie merger), Tempest (with Allan Holdsworth) and Uriah Heep. Clarke is also an excellent singer-songwriter who co-wrote some of Uriah Heep's early hits, and he went on to be part of Billy Squier's prime years.

Much of INCREDIBLE! was tracked at the legendary Ardent Studios in Memphis, a cathartic center for recordings from the pop/rock and soul music heydeys of the 60s and 70s. Musician/Producer Johnny J. Blair (bassist in Jones' band) noted that "everyone from The Box Tops to the Reverend Al Green to Elvis Presley to Dusty Springfield has recorded at Ardent. That classic 'Memphis soul' aroma resonates throughout INCREDIBLE!, particularly on 'Hippy Hippy Shake,' 'I'll Love You Forever' and 'Make the Woman Love Me.'"

Tim Breon (Olivia Newton-John, Martha Reeves) was the remastering engineer for INCREDIBLE!. Breon said he was "impressed by the palette of songs." In the late 80s Breon was playing guitar with the acclaimed David Rose Band, and Breon has done notable session work for Jones in the 90s and 00s.

Breon observes, "INCREDIBLE! was a lot like what we (David Rose Band) were doing in those days. Songs that took musical sophistication to perform but were rich in basic melody. In those days groups like The Outfield and Starship were having hits with punchy music like this. INCREDIBLE! competed with all that. It holds up with today's recording standards as well."

Blair said, "What came out was a mix of 80s British post-new wave pop, Euro-funk, a little blue-eyed soul, and dreamy "Davy Jones" ballads his fans have come to expect."
The album kicks off with the Bowie-esque, synth-driven "motivational piece," "Take a Look Inside Yourself." The gospel-flavored prayer for love, "Make The Woman Love Me," had a long history prior to the session. Sue White of Band 6 (the UK-based Monkees' fan club) was there when Jones delivered this song in pantomime. White said, "'Pantomine, or panto, is usually put on for children at Christmas time and often based on a fairy tale. Panto in the English tradition is actually very verbal, noisy and colourful." She remembers an early 80s stage production of panto-CINDERELLA, "David played the part of Buttons. This was a character who was in love with Cinderella but in the end she married the Prince. David sang 'Make The Woman Love Me' about his character's love for Cinderella and the hope that they would get together. It was a brilliant choice. The kids always kept quiet during it (it can get a bit noisy-on purpose) and the adults loved it.'"
INCREDIBLE! included direct links to The Monkees: A new, heavier version of "Valleri," which captures the same energy as the stage performances. Another song from the 80s Monkees' canon is "(I'll) Love You Forever," a song Jones had written for his fans. Issued first as a solo U.K. single in December 1984, the song was recorded for The Monkees' 1987 LP, POOL IT (produced by Roger Becherian). INCREDIBLE closes with "She Believes," a John Stewart song written as a near-sequel to Stewart's better known composition, "Daydream Believer."

Two tracks from INCREDIBLE!, "After Your Heart" and "Hippy Hippy Shake," were pulled as a picture-sleeve single in 1987 and issued on Powder Works (an Australian record company). "After Your Heart" became a hit single for in Australia and Japan. Blair described the song as "filled with state-of-the-art precision pop grooves, under the wand of Clarke. Like with the title track of INCREDIBLE!, 'Heart' featured "a wailing saxophone, shimmering keyboards and walls of vocal harmonies."

"Hippy Hippy Shake" was a modest American hit for British pop singer Chan Romero in 1959. It crossed the Atlantic as part of the 60s British Invasion (The Beatles and other Merseybeat bands rotated it at their shows; The Swinging Blue Jeans re-charted it in 1965). The Monkees used it as a encore piece (in tandem with "No Time").

Blair said that INCREDIBLE! was a long time in returning: "In 1993, I was working in the studio, editing material for a couple of David's music videos. While listening to concert footage, I heard him say to the audience, 'Hey you should all go out in the lobby and get this album of mine called INCREDIBLE!. I don't know what's so incredible about it myself. None of you are running out there to buy it (laughter).' A few days later David came to the studio with a bag of tapes from his home locker. I became the glad recipient of my own copy of INCREDIBLE!, complete with blue cover framing a photo of tanned Davy with an 80s mullet."

Mastering work began on the old recordings as fans began to ask about INCREDIBLE!. As David began work on new studio recordings with Blair, the back catalogue was shelved except for a few remastered tracks from INCREDIBLE!, appearing on a 2000 compilation CD called DON'T GO (named for the song "Don't Go," recorded around the 1986-87 INCREDIBLE! sessions but not intended for that album).

INCREDIBLE! REVISITED! comes with two bonus tracks: A 2008 recording of the pop standard "Secret Love" (made famous by Doris Day) and the 1991 single, "Free (The Greatest Story Ever Told)" (co-written by Alan Green). The latter is a song-biopic on Jones' career and is now part of Jones' current live set.

To get your copy of INCREDIBLE! REVISITED! and other Jones merchandise go to http://www.davyjones.net.

     Contact