If you’ve ever sung “Hey, Hey, We’re the Monkees”, you’ve got songwriter Bobby Hart to thank. This titan of rock ‘n’ roll shares his intensely personal tale as one of America’s leading hit makers in PSYCHEDELIC BUBBLE GUM: Boyce & Hart, The Monkees, and Turning Mayhem into Miracles, out now.
As half of the fabulously successful team of Boyce & Hart, Bobby helped create the sound of America’s answer to the British invasion, allowing the Monkees to outsell the Beatles and the Rolling Stones combined in 1967. That year, Boyce & Hart embarked on successful careers as recording artists and performers, in their own right. They charted five hit records including the top ten, “I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight”. But, this wasn’t the beginning or the end of Bobby’s contributions to America’s Top Forty.
Bobby Hart’s other top ten hits include ”Come a Little Bit Closer” (Jay and the Americans), “Hurt So Bad” (Linda Ronstadt, Little Anthony, the Lettermen), “Last Train to Clarksville”, “Words”, “Valleri” (the Monkees), “Something’s Wrong With Me” (Austin Roberts), “Keep On Singing (Helen Reddy) and “Dominos” (Robbie Nevil). Throughout his forty year career, his songs have been recorded by artists as diverse as Alicia Keys, the Sex Pistols, New Edition, Andy Williams, Eric Burdon & the Animals, Lulu, Dean Martin, Roger Williams, Herman’s Hermits, and Lester Flat & Earl Scruggs.
For music lovers all over the world, Hart’s music is the soundtrack of their lives, thanks not only to his hit records, but also to the music he composed for television, including: Days of Our Lives, Friends, Everybody Loves Raymond, Saturday Night Live, Gilmore Girls, Jag,The Partridge Family, The Monkees, Josie & The Pussycats, I Dream of Jeannie, Peyton Place, Bewitched, Oz, Home Improvement, Growing Pains, and X-Files.
Movies that use his songs include: Nine to Five, Tender Mercies, Freebie and the Bean, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Joy Luck Club, A Very Brady Sequel, George of the Jungle, Queen’s Logic, Sid and Nancy, Unholy Rollers, and Where Angles Go Trouble Follows.
Being a hit factory can take a spiritual toll, and Hart’s search led him to yoga meditation as a way to keep his life in balance. In PSYCHEDELIC BUBBLE GUM, Hart offers an inside look into the music industry of the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s. He details the pitfalls he encountered and the lessons he learned on his own journey and offers tips on: how to reinforce your own creativity, finding your unique role in life, and actualize your goals - whether they are spiritual or worldly.
PSYCHEDELIC BUBBLE GUM is as much a spiritual guidebook as it is a memoir. It’s the tale of one of the most iconic songwriters and producers of our time, and how he made it through with his soul intact.
BOBBY HART, half of the songwriting team of Boyce & Hart has sung, written and/or produced songs whose records, CDs and downloads approach 100 million in sales. He has been nominated for Grammy, Golden Globe and Academy Awards, and is the subject of a 2015 documentary “The Guys Who Wrote ‘Em”. For more information about Bobby, visit bobbyhart.com.