Customer Reviews

King For A Day

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Micky Dolenz is one of the most underated rock voices of all time. He can handle uptempo and ballads with ease. With his new CD "King for a day", Micky delivers his best solo album ever!. His new version of the Monkees "Sometime in the morning" tells you this album is special. He does a jug band-blue grass feel of the tune and brings a unique version to this song. Other highlights are the beautiful duet with his sister Coco on "Crying in the rain". They have always sounded great together. It's also sweet to hear Micky take over the Bobby Hatfield part for the Righteous Brothers "For once in my life". Micky and guest Bill Medley sound incredible together.

This is such a satisfying album, you want to play it again & again. Hats off to Micky and the team for a terrific CD. How many artists do their best work 45 years since they began. I'll tell you who, George Michael Dolenz!.

It has been a while since Micky was in the studio. This is his official 1st (music for adults) Solo album! His treatment of Carole King penned tracks is indeed a great homage! Staying away from Monkees Carole King tracks a many, he picked one song from the days of old, "Sometime In The Morning" in a very brave arrangement. The album opener "Don't Bring Me Down" (the Animals Hit) is kicking with a ripping lead guitar solo from Jeff "Skunk" Baxter. He works with some great ole talents and some new gems. Including sister Coco who both perform "Crying In The Rain" with an angelic blend. Coco, who mostly recorded Christian music, has a voice so soothing and so much like Micky's, is a welcomed guest! Her contributions to Micky's songs in The Monkees days were so spot on and fabulous as in "She'll Be There" and "Shorty Blackwell".Also a new talent, Jason Brewer, who has captured the sounds of Brian Wilson in his own band "The Explorer's Club". I love all his choices of tunes and what a task that MUST have been! It still would have been great to hear an all acoustic guitar version of "As We Go Along", I am sure more was recorded as I saw him in the studio doing a new version of "Pleasant Valley Sunday" with the help of no other than Monkee Peter Tork. Could there be a "King For Yet Another Day"? One can only hope! With such a catalog of tunes by Ms. King, he could easily do a box set! Thanks Micky for the golden voice that I think only you could properly lend to Carole King's great writing! (imagine singing in 5/4 time!)
~Kevin

Given the imprint Micky Dolenz left as a Monkee, many don't realize he's lived his entire life in showbiz and he is one of the few "child actors" to succeed as an actor and a vocalist. The "drawback" of his career is that his tremendous talent as a vocalist is overlooked because well... he's a Monkee. Let there be no doubt, however, that he is a hell of a singer, and this album is more proof that he can nail great songs with the best. Pairing a great singer with one of the greatest songwriters of the era is an inspired concept that Dolenz pulls off expertly. This album is a wonderful surprise and long overdue, particularly since Dolenz's performances of songs King wrote for the Monkees were consistently excellent (remember, King was "merely" a songwriter during that time period). Perhaps because the Monkees took so much grief for "not playing their own instruments" Dolenz has spent much of his limited post-Monkee recording career performing his own songs, which tend to be idiosyncratic and interesting but not particularly radio-friendly. I hope this is just the first of Dolenz's efforts to match his wonderful voice with songs that do it justice.

Perfect blend, not too hard rocking, not too easy listening. Plenty of variety in the arrangements, so it's never boring or redundant. I will listen to this one a LOT! Hope he'll do a follow-up ASAP

Sorry, I was not that happy with Micky's latest album.

The concept is a wonderful one. Micky has more "cache" than, let's say, Rod Stewart or Barry Manilow in covering rock classics like this, because he was actually King's muse while he was with the Monkees.

However, other than the opening cut, "Don't Bring Me Down," the album is a failure, with a couple of decent moments.

There is no "Wow" factor at all, and Micky often seems to be going through the motions on some of these songs.

He and his producer decided to take a pop, not rock, slant to these tunes, and again, other than the title track, the collection suffers because of this.

Micky is one of the most underrated of all rock singers, so why put him in the pop mold?

This will appeal to adult contemporary or middle of the road purchasers, and not much to anyone else.

Maybe next time Micky will be allowed to use all of his talents on such a recording; here, he is relatively wasted--but the first song is terrific!

By David M. Beard
Editor and Publisher of Endless Summer Quarterly; The World's Leading Brian Wilson/Beach Boys Publication

Today, Micky Dolenz's name is synonymous with The Monkees, the pre-fab four who brought us unforgettable songs like "(Theme From) The Monkees," "Last Train to Clarksville," "I'm A Believer," "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone," "Pleasant Valley Sunday," "Porpoise Song" (Theme From "Head") and "That Was Then, This Is Now." Micky Dolenz is a part of The Monkees' extended consciousness.

For this new collection, Dolenz has left behind his pop-comedic sensibilities in favor of the stylized crooner approach that breathes new life into songwriter Carole King's colorful catalogue. King For A Day gathers together a handful of Micky's favorite songs as written by King. While this is a "cover album," Dolenz approaches the tracks with a confident swagger reminiscent of Frank Sinatra and Johnny Mathis. His voice is as potent as ever and the production touches from Brian Wilson musical director Jeff Foskett and engineer extraordinaire Gary Griffin bring Micky's vocals front and center... right where they belong.

King For A Day features lush harmonies, organic production and an overall earthiness; it also corrects previous misgivings about Micky's pipes and paves the way for future releases of this ilk.

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I do realise that many people have conflicting feelings about the Monkees. Depends on what you read and when it was written, either the Monkees were talentless musical hacks who were the byproduct of a successful tv show. Or they were simply a group of four musicians/actors who were misunderstood. During today's music scene it isn't uncommon for singers not to perform on their own albums and to lip synch in concerts. Today's producer driven music is killing true art if you ask me. When you look back on the Monkees you will see that the only time they didn't play their own instruments is when they weren't allowed to. The powers that be wanted them to do the show and let someone else handle the music portion, only allowing them to sing on the tracks, except for the few Nesmith tunes that were barely allowed. After that they did play their instruments and enjoyed tremendous input on their own albums. So it does bother me that people today still do not think of them as a real band, or they say that Micky was not a drummer he was an actor playing a drummer. He either played the drums or he didn't. (Which he did) So the actor playing a drummer bit is a bit silly. I have liked the Monkees from the reruns of the show (as I was born about a year after their show/movie were over and done) and of course radio-play. As I got older and my tastes in music became more broad, I started to look backwards in time to find what good music took place before I was born. Up till that point I had bought more current albums and listened to the same stuff my peers listened to. But once I learned that the best music on albums never made it to radio (I learned this by listening to Prince albums) I started wondering what else was I missing. So I would go to the library and look up books on older acts to see what was there that I might want to buy and try out. I happened on a book about the Monkees, I learned about the show, the albums etc...and it listed the original albums with tracklistings. So I went to the record stgore to find the albums, at the time I had to buy Vinyl and transfer them to cassettes so I can listen when I was out. Shortly thereafter and ever since Rhino started reissuing the albums. I now have all nine of the originals plus the Pool It CD and Justus. Plus all the collector cds from rhino as well (a new deluxe edition of the sountrack for head is soon to be released, just so you know) To make a long story short, I fell in love with the music as well with the evolution of each of the members. I have quite a few of Mike's post monkees cds as well as the micky dolezn broadway micky cd. Micky has always been one of my favorites. (favorite mokees and one of my all time favorite singers) one critic/observer noted that he liked the way Micky sang because he seemed to be singing from an actor's point of view, meaing he was singing it as if he were acting out the story of the song. Which is true to some degree. He could also do ballads and rock out with the best of them. I have only listened to the snippets of the songs here, as I was just made aware it even existed. So based on that and of course based on the past output of micky, I have to say this is a welcome treat. Micky Dolenz is definitely underrated, but I wonder if he's underrated cause he's a Monkee as someone said, or if because he's also known as an actor/director. Micky sounds great even after all these years. I just hope this is the start of more releases from him. I would love to hear an album of all original songs from him. My friend's son (I live with them) started watching the Monkees with me one day and then started watching all the shows with me (i just got the two seasons on dvd) and he also thinks Micky is the best one. So I am trying to get him more into some of the music that he's missed out on. He has a few of the monkees albums now, and loves them, so I bought him autographed drum sticks from Micky...as a keepsake. So hopefully we can keep the new generation in line by showing them the best of the best music has to offer, so that maybe in the future music will return to what makes it good in the first place...the artists. There are some really great musicians/singers out there today but they are few and far between. At least for now it's good to know that the ones who were great, still are, and still share with us some of their best work. I would highly recommend this album. For no other reason than it's simply great music by a great artist.

Whether you know a lttle or a lot of Carole KIng compositions, Mickey Dolenz leaves little doubt of what a fantastic interpreter of songs he is. He has a unique voice that aligns with everyone who bopped and hummed his way down the street singing these kind of songs in the past and now. That's what I think of when I play this record. We all can feel like were like Mickey.

My favorite Monkee sings Carole King. What could be better than that? If you own every Monkees album and every Carole King album, you will love, love, love this cd! If you don't know either of them that well or only a bit, start with this.

As a Monkees' listener appreciating Mickey's chops since age 3 (Monkees debuted in '66), I have never comprehended the lack of widespread knowledge about the consistently high vocal skills he has. This album was a worthy listen from the first note, and the renditions of Sometime in the Morning and his duet with Bill Medley alone make it essential listening. Whatta talent you've always been, Mick.