Bobby Hart, who co-wrote 'Last Train to Clarksville' and other Monkees hits, dies

Bobby Hart, who co-wrote 'Last Train to Clarksville' and other Monkees hits, dies

Briefly

"NEW YORK Bobby Hart, a key part of the Monkees' multimedia empire who teamed with Tommy Boyce on such hits as "Last Train to Clarksville" and "I'm Not Your Steppin' Stone," has died. He was 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 No. 1 hit, "Last Train to Clarksville." The Monkees' eponymous, million-selling debut album included six songs from Boyce and Hart and used their own backing musicians, the Candy Store Prophets, as session players."

"They also were politically active. They campaigned for Robert F. Kennedy when he ran for president in 1968 and wrote the brassy "L.U.V. (Let Us Vote)" in support of the 26th Amendment, which in 1971 lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. Their other songs included the Monkees' melancholy "I Wanna Be Free" and the theme to the daytime soap opera Days of Our Lives. They were covered by everyone from Dean Martin ("Little Lovely One") to the Sex Pistols ("I'm Not Yo"