Randy Scouse Git

"Randy Scouse Git"
Single by The Monkees
from the album Headquarters
Released	May 22, 1967
Format	CD, 7" vinyl, 12" vinyl
Recorded	RCA Victor Studio C, Hollywood, March 4 and 8, 1967
Genre	Pop rock
Length	3:40
Label	RCA
Writer(s)	Micky Dolenz
Producer(s)	Douglas Farthing-Hatlelid

"Randy Scouse Git" is a song written by Micky Dolenz in 1967 and recorded by The Monkees. It was the first song written by Dolenz to be commercially released, and became a #2 hit in the UK where it was retitled "Alternate Title" after the record company (RCA) complained that the original title was actually somewhat "taboo to the British audience". Dolenz took the song's title from a phrase he had heard spoken on an episode of the British television series Till Death Us Do Part, which he had watched while in England. The song also appeared on The Monkees TV series, on their album Headquarters, and on several "Greatest Hits" albums. Peter Tork has said that it is one of his favorite Monkees tracks.

Background

According to Dolenz, the song was written about a party that The Beatles threw for the Monkees at the Speakeasy nightclub in London. There are references in the song to the Beatles ("the four kings of EMI") and to other party attendees such as Cass Elliot of The Mamas & the Papas ("the girl in yellow dress")^[1] and Dolenz's future wife, Top of the Pops "disc girl" Samantha Juste ("She's a wonderful lady"), ("the being known as Wonder Girl").^[2] The verses and chorus do not relate to each other, with the verses whimsically describing the party and the chorus consisting of Dolenz screaming bigoted remarks at an unseen, long-haired youth.

The phrase "Randy Scouse Git", later defined by Dolenz as "something like 'sex-crazed Liverpudlian jerk'",^[3] was taken from the 1960s British sitcom Till Death Us Do Part, in which it was regularly used, by the loud-mouthed main character Alf Garnett, played by Cockney actor Warren Mitchell, to insult his Liverpudlian ("Scouse") son-in-law, played by Tony Booth. The show was later adapted into the American sitcom All in the Family, in which the writers replaced the phrase in American scripts with the epithet "Meathead". RCA Records in England told the band that they would not release the song unless it was given an "alternate title" (though, in British English, they may have used the word "alternative"). By his own account, Dolenz said "OK, 'Alternate Title' it is".^[3]

The song is played by all four Monkees with Dolenz on vocals, drums and timpani, Davy Jones on backing vocals, Mike Nesmith on guitar, Tork on piano and organ, and producer Chip Douglas (The Turtles) on bass guitar.

Cover versions

• Bad Manners covered the song on their 1997 album Heavy Petting.
• Carter USM also covered the song on the B-side of the single "Anytime Anyplace Anywhere" released on Rough Trade in 1990.
• Dolenz re-recorded the song on his 2012 album, Remember.

References