I'm a Believer

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“I'm a Believer”
“I'm a Believer” cover
Single by The Monkees
from the album More of The Monkees
B-side "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone"
Released 12 November 1966
Genre Rock
Label RCA
Writer(s) Neil Diamond
Producer Jeff Barry
The Monkees singles chronology
"Last Train to Clarksville"
(1966)		 "I'm a Believer"
(1966)		 "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You"
(1967)
 Music sample:

The Monkees - "I'm a Believer"

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"I'm a Believer" is a song composed by Neil Diamond and recorded by the band The Monkees in 1966 with the lead vocals by Micky Dolenz. It is written in G major with several modulations to G mixolydian. The single, produced by Jeff Barry, hit the number one spot on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart on December 31, 1966 and remained there for seven weeks, becoming the biggest-selling record for all of 1967, and one of the biggest of all time. Because of advance orders, over 1,051,280, it went gold within two days of release. The song became Billboard's top single of the year and kept the novelty smash, "Snoopy & the Red Baron" by The Royal Guardsmen, at number two for four weeks. Neil Diamond had already recorded this song before it was covered by the Monkees, and it still sometimes appears in his live concerts. Neil Diamond also suggested it to The Fifth Estate who recorded it as a 1967 album cut in follow up to their smash hit Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead. This song was later covered by Smash Mouth and Eddie Murphy in 2001, as part of the soundtrack to the movie Shrek (the band also released the song on its self-titled album). Eddie Murphy, portraying the character "Donkey", also performed a rendition of the song in the film. The song was chosen for its opening line, "I thought love was only true in fairy tales," which matched the fairy tale motif of the film. "I'm a Believer" was a hit for both The Monkees and Smash Mouth.

A revised recording by Neil Diamond, featuring additional lyrics, appears on the album September Morn, whilst his original recording can be found on several albums, including his greatest hits album, The Essential Neil Diamond. A cover by British singer-songwriter Robert Wyatt was an unlikely hit in the UK in 1974. In 1995, British comedian Vic Reeves teamed up with then-popular band EMF for a version which reached #3 on the UK singles chart; this cover is notable for its semi-comic inclusion of three solo drumbeats and a shout of "Oi!" between the first and second lines of the first and second verses. This addition to the song has permeated popular culture in the UK to the extent that it has become almost impossible for the original version to be played in public without the audience adding their own "Oi!"[citation needed]. A nod to this version is included in Shrek; though the "Oi!" does not appear in any album version of Smash Mouth's cover, it is inserted into the song when it is played in the film's finale, shouted by Snow White's Seven Dwarfs.

In 2008, this song ranked #1 on Dallas station KLUV 98.7FM's Top 500 Memorial Day Countdown, as voted on by the listeners.

[edit] Selected list of recorded versions

Preceded by
"Good Vibrations" by The Beach Boys		 Billboard Hot 100 number one single (The Monkees version)
December 31, 1966		 Succeeded by
"Kind of a Drag" by The Buckinghams
Preceded by
"Green Green Grass of Home" by Tom Jones		 UK number one single
19 January 1967 for four weeks		 Succeeded by
"This Is My Song" by Petula Clark
Preceded by
"Winchester Cathedral" by The New Vaudeville Band		 United World Chart number one single
January 21, 1967 – March 18, 1967		 Succeeded by
"Penny Lane" by The Beatles
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