There's Something About Mary: Mary, Mary

The Monkees: Mary, Mary

[purchase]

Run DMC: Mary, Mary

[purchase]

Yes, The Monkees were definitely on the musical radar of my formative years - I was 12 when they appeared on the scene... and I bought the albums, watched the TV show and read the magazines (remember Tiger Beat?). Micky was my favorite - I still remember his favorite color (invisible... :-)

The Monkees (a.k.a. The PreFab Four) were an amalgamation of Beatles/Kinks/Hollies/Animals/Byrds sounds, writing very little of their own music but savvy enough to cover the compositions of Carole King/Gerry Goffin, Tommy Boyce/Bobby Hart and Neil Diamond - I only just found out that Michael Nesmith wrote Mary, Mary before he joined The Monkees. The tune was actually first recorded by The Paul Butterfield Blues Band a year before The Monkees released it, with Micky singing the vocals... and Nesmith always knew this jingle-jangle pop-rocker would be a hit - is it really about a stalker? (you decide...).

My sister Mari, on the other hand, was a product of the 80's - what comes to mind immediately: U2, Bow Wow Wow, The Motels... and any of the John Hughes movie soundtracks. I don't think she was a fan of Run DMC... but they were popular in her time period - how interesting to find they covered/sampled Mary, Mary 21 years later... changing quite a few lyrics in the process!

P.S. I discovered this photo in the Snapfish album of Mari's January 2007 Colorado trip she sent me upon her return - "Mari, Mari... you look cute muggin', it's so cold you could use a huggin' "(with apologies to Michael Nesmith, Run and DMC... :-)