Monkees’ Peter Tork Dies At 77
Interestingly, Tork landed his role in The Monkees after his friend Stephen Stills auditioned — answering an ad in Variety calling for “4 Insane Boys, Ages 17-21.” When Stills didn’t get the part — reportedly due to his bad teeth — he suggested Tork audition. At the age of 24, Tork was the band’s oldest member when The Monkees premiered on NBC in 1966.
The Monkees ran for only two seasons but won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy and spawned a frenzy of merchandising, record sales and world tours that became known as “Monkeemania.” In 1967, according to one report in The Washington Post, the Monkees sold 35 million albums — “twice as many as the Beatles and Rolling Stones combined” — on the strength of hits like “Daydream Believer,” “I’m a Believer” and “Last Train to Clarksville,” which all hit No. 1 on the Billboard chart. Almost all of their early material was penned by a stable of legendary songwriters that included Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Neil Diamond, David Gates, Neil Sedaka, Jeff Barry, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, and most of their early hits were performed by studio musicians, with Jones, Dolenz, Nesmith and Tork supplying the vocals.
Tork is survived by his wife, Pamela Grapes; a daughter, Hallie, from his second marriage; a son, Ivan, from his third marriage; a daughter, Erica, from a relationship with Tammy Sustek; a brother and a sister.