{"id":2024844,"date":"2025-09-16T00:33:52","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T00:33:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2024844"},"modified":"2025-09-16T00:33:52","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T00:33:52","slug":"bobby-hart-who-co-wrote-last-train-to-clarksville-and-other-monkees-hits-dies-npr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/bobby-hart-who-co-wrote-last-train-to-clarksville-and-other-monkees-hits-dies-npr\/","title":{"rendered":"Bobby Hart, who co-wrote ‘Last Train to Clarksville’ and other Monkees hits, dies : NPR"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n This July 6, 1967 file photo shows the musical group, The Monkees, from left, Peter Tork, Mike Nesmith, David Jones, and Micky Dolenz at a news conference at the Warwick Hotel in New York. \n <\/p>\n
NEW YORK \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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, who also served as producers and used their own backing musicians, the Candy Store Prophets, as session players.<\/p>\n