In 1971, Davy Jones was fresh on the heels of his fame as one of the members of The Monkees. The pop-rock band, which included Jones, Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork, shot to fame in the late 1960s with the hits “Last Train to Clarksville,” “I’m a Believer and “Daydream Believer,” all fueled by their popular NBC TV show.
But months after the group disbanded, Jones recorded the song “Girl” as a solo artist. The single was released in November 1971 but never charted on the Billboard Hot 100. Jones’ song was actually a flop twice: as a solo single and as part of a box office bomb.
“Girl” was the theme song for the Sandy Duncan movie The Star-Spangled Girl, which was based on a Neil Simon play about a political love triangle. The film, released on Dec. 22, 1971, was a failure in a year that featured top-grossing blockbusters such as Billy Jack, Fiddler on the Roof and Diamonds Are Forever.
In an interview with Goldmine, songwriter Charles Fox revealed that he always wanted Jones for the movie song.
“Davy Jones was our choice to sing the song,” Fox recalled. “He had a very positive, upbeat, and youthful sound; we wanted to get the youthful quality, and he delivered that… Davy did a little faster and brighter version, adding a more positive kind of quality to it.”
While “Girl” wasn’t a radio hit for Jones, the song got a major boost when it was featured in a Brady Bunch episode that year. The episode, titled “Getting Davy Jones” aired on ABC on Dec. 10, 1971, with a storyline about Marcia Brady’s (Maureen McCormick) desperate attempt to get the Monkees' heartthrob to perform at her school’s junior prom. The episode features a full scene of Jones in the studio recording "Girl.”
In an interview posted on Pop Goes the Culture TV, Jones explained his guest spot on the hit sitcom. “The reason I did a Brady Bunch was I recorded this song for Arista Records, and it was for a movie called Star-Spangled Girl with Sandy Duncan,” he shared. “And so it was a way of sort of getting on the program, and they laugh about it, I think the name Davy Jones is mentioned about 48 times [in the episode]. I thought that was kind of funny.”
“But TV Land nominated me for a most memorable episode, and I think I won the award,” he added.
Jones added that he never “thought about” if McCormick and the other Bradys were fans of his when he made the guest appearance. “I just tried to be natural when I talked to them as if I was just Davy Jones, this guy who was visiting,” he said. “And I knew the premise of the TV episode, and I'd seen The Brady Bunch. I just couldn't understand if this guy [patriarch Mike Brady, played by Robert Reed] was an architect, why you know, they were living in two rooms, you know? Hello?”
RELATED: The Monkees ‘Best Song of All Time’ Became a No. 1 Hit Twice
Davy Jones was a fan favorite guest
More than 50 years later, “Getting Davy Jones” remains one of the most memorable Brady Bunch episodes of all time. The episode airs regularly in syndication and is available on streaming platforms, so new generations have come to know and love Jones’ song, “Girl.”
In her 2008 memoir Here’s the Story, McCormick wrote that her heart “fluttered” when she was told Jones would appear The Brady Bunch. “Davy’s arrival on the set created a buzz greater than any other guest star we had on the show,” she shared. “Davy was a lovely guy, and it was a big deal to have a pop star of his caliber on set. I noticed Barry [Williams] watch him the way one might if looking for pointers.”
Brady Bunch mom Florence Henderson said she was “thrilled” when she found out that Jones was coming to do the show.
“He said that of all the things he's done in his career, that Brady Bunch is what people know him for, they just love it. He said it's absolutely astounding,” Henderson shared in an interview with the Television Academy Foundation.
A ‘90s revival
Jone had the opportunity to revive 'Girl” in the 1995 film The Brady Bunch Movie. The singer performed a “grunge” version of the song for a school prom scene in the spoof movie.
Jones, who died suddenly in 2012 at age 66, fully embraced his Brady Bunch past by also appearing in the "Real Live Brady Bunch" tour in the 1990s.
"A few times, I said, 'You have a choice, you can be an actor or you can be a star.' And for the past few weeks, I've been a celebrity on the road with 'Brady Bunch,' being Davy Jones from The Monkees," he said in a 1994 interview, per MeTV. “I've probably got more lines on my face than Union Station, but I'm still found attractive by Monkees fans and Brady Bunch fans. …Yeah, I'm still the dream, the guy with stars in his eyes."
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