Every New Zealand #1 single…
9
Joanne
Topped the NZ chart: from 25 December 1970 for 1 week.
One of the more surprising number one hits in New Zealand was ‘Joanne’. It’s a 1970 single from former Monkee Michael Nesmith.
Even before The Monkees, Nesmith had an interesting background. In 1955, his mother invented the typewriter correction fluid Liquid Paper. She later sold it to Gilette for $47.5 million.
Nesmith joined the Air Force in 1960, becoming a mechanic. After his discharge in 1962, his mother and stepfather gave him a guitar. Nesmith began playing folk clubs and writing songs. His 1964 song ‘Different Drum’ was later popularised by Linda Ronstadt. Nesmith released several singles, including one as Michael Blessing, before joining The Monkees.
The Monkees became quickly successful, although the artistically ambitious Nesmith was frustrated by their manufactured image. While his songs appeared on the Monkees records, he didn’t write many of their hits. 1969’s ‘Listen to the Band’ is probably his best known tune for his band, although 1967’s ‘The Girl I Knew Somewhere’ squeaked into the top 40.
Nesmith left The Monkees in early 1970. With three years left on his contract, breaking free cost him money. He was in debt until inheriting money from his mother’s estate in 1980.
Nesmith quickly commenced a solo career. He had a stockpile of songs from his Monkees days, and released three studio albums in twelve months. He was supported by The First National Band, who played country rock. The band featured Red Rhodes, a former member of The Wrecking Crew who played pedal steel.
Nesmith had previously signalled an interest in country rock. ‘Listen to the Band’ has country flavours, and he wore a Nudie suit to the premiere of Head.
‘Joanne’ was a surprising number one – it was successful in other countries too. At #21 on Billboard, it was the highest-charting US single by a former Monkee. But it may well have been Nesmith’s only number one single anywhere.
It’s a pretty tune, and topped the NZ charts for one week, on 25 December 1970. Arguably, Nesmith’s better suited a to a support role than the spotlight – his singing is low-key and a little creaky. But he’s a good writer and there’s a great hook, using Nesmith’s falsetto. ‘Joanne’ falls somewhere between Gram Parsons’ cosmic country rock and Bread’s sentimental string of 1970s hits.
The Christmas number one spot wasn’t as celebrated as it is now, and only a handful of Christmas-themed tunes have topped the charts. But Michael Nesmith may be the most surprising artist to hold the Christmas #1 spot in NZ.
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Her name was Joanne!!! I love this record.
I hope everybody’s having a really good Xmas. I’m cooking my ass off. I’m making turkey and Cornish hens and macaroni and cheese. And sweet potato pie and chocolate pie for dessert. It’s gonna be so awesome.
It’s Boxing Day here now, but I can report that Christmas went well. I made pavlova and pasta salad, while my wife glazed a ham. Yours sounds good.
I never heard of pavlova before besides the old-timey Russian actress or whatever she was. But I looked it up and it looks delicious. I didn’t know you could make a whole dessert out of meringue. I’ve made lemon meringue pie but it never came out right.
I really liked this song when it came out in 1970, and it got a lot of play on San Francisco radio.
I’ve never heard it before – weird it didn’t get on the radio, since it was a number one hit. It’s pretty country though.
Heck, I prefer “Her Name Was Rodan” instead. 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8Yg2Y2y_dU
I did not know about that – funny! Happy Christmas.
Knew some about Nesmith but learned more in your post. I’ve always loved this song. Another bit of trivia about Nesmith is that he was a producer on the cult classic movie, Repo Man (1984.)
His mum being an inventor is pretty interesting. I didn’t know about Repo Man. Happy Christmas!
Yes, and you also!
Love me some Nez! I had the chance to see him twice, once with his own band, once with Micky Dolenz, in the years before his passing. Lovely shows highlighting his exceptional catalog of songs. He was also a great story-teller, so his intros were often as fun and moving as the music. The “Dolenz Sings Nesmith” album from a few years back really hammers home how good the songs were, and Mike’s son Christian is a super producer and stage director who made that album and shows I saw even greater.
Awesome, I heard about the recent REM covers from Dolenz, but didn’t know about the Nesmith one.
And also he did an album of Carole King covers too. I think it’s called King for a Day. It’s just kind of okay .
None of the tracks made your top ten Carole King covers obviously…
He was my favorite Monkee hands down. I even got a green stocking cap when I was a kid. Anyway…yes he was a good writer and I’ve liked this song…but I had no clue he released that many albums in a year.
I liked a lot of the Nesmith Monkee songs… they weren’t big hits but they were good like Sweet Young Thing.
I think he’s probably the favourite Monkee for most music geeks. I was listening to his second album with The First National Band today, and there were some strong tracks.
Tork is the other one that I respect…Nesmith and Tork were originally the only two real musicians…but yea Nesmith could do much more and I like his country rock.
Dolenz is probably my second favourite actually. Seems pretty talented, even though he came from an acting background.
He did have the best voice of them all. I did read that Dolenz played guitar in a band right before Monkees