"Saturday's Child" is a song by American pop-rock band

The Monkees The Monkees were an American pop rock band formed in Los Angeles in the mid-1960s. The band consisted of Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones (musician), Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork. Spurred by the success of ''The Monkees (TV series), Th ...

, from their 1966 debut album ''

''. The song features

Micky Dolenz George Michael Dolenz Jr. ( ; born March 8, 1945) is an American musician and actor. He was the drummer and one of two primary vocalists for the pop rock band the Monkees (1966–1970, and reunions until 2021), and a co-star of the TV series ''T ...

on lead vocals. It was written by

Bread Bread is a baked food product made from water, flour, and often yeast. It is a staple food across the world, particularly in Europe and the Middle East. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cu ...

frontman

David Gates David Ashworth Gates (born December 11, 1940) is a retired American singer-songwriter, guitarist, musician and producer, frontman and co-lead singer (with Jimmy Griffin) of the group Bread (band), Bread, which reached the top of the musical ch ...

. The song is an electric guitar–based rock song. It is widely regarded as one of their best album tracks, with AMG critic Matthew Greenwald saying that it has a "proto- heavy metal guitar riff" and it is "one of the more interesting curios of the early Monkees catalog". Though it was never released as a single, it has been included on several of The Monkees'

greatest hits album A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be creat ...

s. "Saturday's Child" was included on the episode "Monkee vs. Machine" of the series ''

'', which aired on 26 September 1966. This section of the episode, which doubles as a

promotional video In video production, a promotional video is marketing or advertising: Arts, media and entertainment * Promotional recording, an audio or video recording distributed to publicize a recording * Trailer (promotion), a commercial advertisement for a ...

for the song, shows The Monkees playing around on the beach and having fun with five children (at any one time), in a

dune buggy A dune buggy — also known as a beach buggy — is a recreational off-road vehicle with large wheels, and wide tires, designed for use on sand dunes, beaches, off-road or desert recreation. The design is usually a topless vehicle with a rear ...

, on a swing set, on slides, on a jungle gym, on a horse, on unicycles, and on

Honda Super Cub The Honda Super Cub (or Honda Cub) is a Honda underbone motorcycle with a four-stroke engine, four-stroke single cylinder engine, single-cylinder engine ranging in engine displacement, displacement from . In continuous manufacture since 1958 wit ...

motorcycles, and hamming it up driving the

Monkeemobile The Monkeemobile is a modified Pontiac GTO that was designed and built by designer Dean Jeffries for The Monkees, a pop and rock musical band and television program. The car features a split two-piece windshield, a touring car convertible top, m ...

around

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

. While originally published by Screen Gems-Columbia Music (BMI) in 1966, the rights are now held by Sony/ATV Tunes LLC (ASCAP).

Herman's Hermits Herman's Hermits are an English rock and pop group formed in 1963 in Manchester and formerly fronted by singer Peter Noone. Known for their jaunty beat sound and Noone's often tongue-in-cheek vocal style, the Hermits charted with numerous tra ...

recorded a more acoustic version of the song and released it on their 1967 album ''

There's a Kind of Hush All Over the World ''There's a Kind of Hush All Over the World'' is the fifth album released by MGM Records in the US and Canada for the band Herman's Hermits. It was released in March 1967. In the UK, ''There's a Kind of Hush All Over the World'' is the band's ...

''. Indie rock band

Guided by Voices Guided by Voices is an American indie rock band formed in 1983 in Dayton, Ohio. It has made frequent personnel changes but always maintained the presence of principal songwriter Robert Pollard. The most well-known lineup of the band consisted o ...

has regularly covered it in their live sets.

References

The Monkees songs 1966 songs Songs written by David Gates Song recordings produced by Tommy Boyce Song recordings produced by Bobby Hart {{1960s-pop-song-stub

See also

References