Last Train to Clarksville

"Last Train to Clarksville" is a song by American rock band the Monkees. It was released as the band's debut single on August 16, 1966, and was later included on the group's self-titled album, which was released on October 10, 1966.[4] The song, written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, was recorded at RCA Victor Studio B in Hollywood on July 25, 1966,[4] and was already on the Boss Radio "Hit Bounds" playlist on August 17, 1966.[5] The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 for the week ending November 5, 1966.[6] Lead vocals were performed by the Monkees' drummer, Micky Dolenz.[7] "Last Train to Clarksville" was featured in seven episodes of the band's television series, the most for any Monkees song.

"Last Train to Clarksville"
US single cover
Single by the Monkees
from the album The Monkees
B-side"Take a Giant Step"
ReleasedAugust 16, 1966[1]
RecordedJuly 25, 1966
RCA Victor Studios, Studio A
Hollywood, CA
Genre
Length2:46
LabelColgems 1001
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
  • Tommy Boyce
  • Bobby Hart
The Monkees singles chronology
"Last Train to Clarksville"
(1966)		 "I'm a Believer"
(1966)
Music video
"Last Train To Clarksville" (Official Live Video) on YouTube

Composition

The song was written by the songwriting duo of Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart.[8] Boyce has said that the song's opening guitar part (played by Louis Shelton) was an attempt to emulate the type of memorable and clearly identifiable riff that the Beatles had used in songs such as "I Feel Fine," "Day Tripper" and "Paperback Writer".[8] The latter Beatles' song had reached number one on the U.S. charts three months earlier, around the time that "Last Train to Clarksville" was written and recorded. The lyrics, too, were inspired by "Paperback Writer": Hart misheard the end of that song on the radio and thought Paul McCartney was singing "take the last train"; Hart then decided to use the line himself, after he found out that McCartney was actually singing "paperback writer."[9]

Hart knew that the Monkees' TV series was being pitched as a music/comedy series in the spirit of the Beatles' film A Hard Day's Night, and he was hoping that by emulating the Beatles the song might become a successful single.

The lyrics tell of a man phoning the woman whom he loves, urging her to meet him at a train station in Clarksville before he must leave, possibly forever. There is no explicit reference to war in the song, but its last line, "And I don't know if I'm ever coming home," was an indirect reference to a soldier leaving for the Vietnam War.[10] Hart has denied any connection by the song to the city of Clarksville, Tennessee, near Fort Campbell, Kentucky, the home of the 101st Airborne Division that was then serving in Vietnam. According to Hart, "We were just looking for a name that sounded good. There's a little town in northern Arizona I used to go through in the summer on the way to Oak Creek Canyon called Clarkdale. We were throwing out names, and when we got to Clarkdale, we thought Clarksville sounded even better. We didn't know it at the time, [but] there is an Army base near the town of Clarksville, Tennessee — which would have fit the bill fine for the storyline. We couldn't be too direct with the Monkees. We couldn't really make a protest song out of it—we kind of snuck it in."[11]

Recording

Boyce and Hart's band, Candy Store Prophets, performed the instrumental session work on the recording.[12]

B-side

The single's B-side, "Take a Giant Step," later appeared as the closing track on Side 1 of the Monkees' debut album.[13] Micky Dolenz performed lead vocals.[13]

The song is presented as a plea to a heartbroken girl to move on from her past romantic disappointments and to "learn to live again at last" by "taking a giant step outside your mind." Critic Eric Lefcowitz describes the song as "proto-psychedelic."[14]

Reception

Of "Last Train to Clarksville," Billboard remarked that "all the excitement generated by the promotion campaign for the new group ... is justified by this debut disk loaded with exciting teen dance beat sounds."[15] Cash Box said that it is "a hard-driving, pulsating romantic wailer with catchy repeating riff."[16]

Personnel

Chart performance

References
  1. "August 1966: The Monkees Debut with LAST TRAIN TO CLARKSVILLE | Rhino".
  2. Trigger (December 10, 2021). "More Than a Monkee: Mike Nesmith's Seminal Hand in Country Rock". Saving Country Music. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  3. Stanley, Bob (2014). "Bubblegum Is the Naked Truth: The Monkees". Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! The Story of Pop Music from Bill Haley to Beyoncé. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. p. 205.
  4. The Monkees Greatest Hits Rhino Entertainment R2 75785 Liner notes
  5. "KHJ's 'Boss 30' Records In Southern California! Issue No. 59 - Previewed August 17, 1966". August 17, 1966. Archived from the original on June 24, 2010. Retrieved May 12, 2012.
  6. Brown, Ashley, ed. (1990). Marshall Cavendish Illustrated History of Popular Music. Vol. Six (Reference ed.). Marshall Cavendish. ISBN 1-85435-021-8.
  7. "Last Train To Clarksville by The Monkees Songfacts".
  8. Kotal, Kent. "The Music of Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart". Forgotten hits. Retrieved February 5, 2015.
  9. Brown, Craig (April 2, 2020). "Chapter 91". One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time (hardback ed.). 4th Estate. p. 363. ISBN 978-0-00-834000-1.
  10. Smith, Chris (February 21, 2019). "Is 'Last Train to Clarksville' about Clarksville, Tennessee?". The Leaf-Chronicle. Retrieved July 30, 2021.
  11. "After 50 Years, The Monkees Reveal The Surprising Truth Behind "Last Train To Clarksville"". Society of Rock. n.d. Songwriter Bobby Hart admits to sneaking in the controversial subject matter under the radar,
  12. Sandoval, Andrew (2005). The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story of the 1960s TV Pop Sensation. Thunder Bay Press. p. 46.
  13. Planer, L. "Take a Giant Step". Allmusic. Retrieved August 2, 2012.
  14. Lefcowitz, E. (2011). Monkee Business. Retrofuture. pp. 43, 52. ISBN 9780943249018.
  15. "Spotlight Singles" (PDF). Billboard. August 27, 1966. p. 16. Retrieved March 3, 2021.
  16. "CashBox Record Reviews" (PDF). Cash Box. August 27, 1966. p. 42. Retrieved January 12, 2022.
  17. "The Irish Charts – Search Results – Last Train to Clarksville". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved July 11, 2017.
  18. Nyman, Jake (2005). Suomi soi 4: Suuri suomalainen listakirja (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Tammi. p. 210. ISBN 951-31-2503-3.
  19. "Flavour of New Zealand, 25 November 1966". Archived from the original on June 1, 2016. Retrieved December 8, 2018.
  20. "SA Charts 1965–March 1989". Retrieved September 5, 2018.
  21. "Top 100 Songs of 1966". June 13, 2023.
  22. "Top 100 Hits of 1966/Top 100 Songs of 1966".
  23. "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Archived from the original on August 12, 2016. Retrieved November 20, 2016.
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