Davy Jones
Jones performing in Geneva, Illinois, in 2006
Born	David Thomas Jones (1945-12-30)30 December 1945 Openshaw, Manchester, Lancashire, England
Died	29 February 2012(2012-02-29) (aged 66) Stuart, Florida, US
Cause of death	Heart Attack
Occupation(s)	Singer, actor, musician
Years active	1961–2012
Children	Talia Elizabeth (born (1968-10-02)2 October 1968) Sarah Lee (born (1971-07-03)3 July 1971) Jessica Lillian (born (1981-09-04)4 September 1981) Annabel Charlotte (born (1988-06-26)26 June 1988)
Website	davyjones.net

David Thomas "Davy" Jones (30 December 1945 – 29 February 2012) was an English singer-songwriter and actor best known as a member of The Monkees.

Early life

Davy Jones was born at 20 Leamington Street, Openshaw, Manchester, Lancashire, England, on 30 December 1945. Aged 11 he began his acting career, appearing on the British television soap opera Coronation Street, which was produced at Granada Studios by Granada Television in Manchester. In 1961 Jones played Ena Sharples' grandson, Colin Lomax,^[1] the year Coronation Street was first broadcast. He also appeared in the BBC police series Z-Cars. However, after the death of his mother from emphysema when he was 14 years old, he left acting and trained as a jockey with Basil Foster.^[1]

Acting career

Foster was approached by a friend who worked in a theatre in the West End of London during casting for the musical Oliver!. Foster replied, "I've got the kid." Jones was cast and appeared to great acclaim as the Artful Dodger. He played the role in London and then on Broadway and was nominated for a Tony Award.^[2] On 9 February 1964, he appeared with the Broadway cast of Oliver! on The Ed Sullivan Show, the same episode on which The Beatles made their first appearance. Jones said of that night, "I watched the Beatles from the side of the stage, I saw the girls going crazy, and I said to myself, this is it, I want a piece of that."^[3]

Following his Ed Sullivan appearance, Ward Sylvester of Screen Gems (then the television division of Columbia Pictures) signed Jones to a contract. A pair of American television appearances followed, as Jones received screen time in episodes of Ben Casey and The Farmer's Daughter. He also recorded a single and album for Colpix Records, which charted but were not huge hits. A random fact of Davy Jones was he really liked cats.

The Monkees

From 1965 to 1971, Jones was a member of The Monkees, a pop-rock group formed expressly for a television show of the same name. With Screen Gems producing the series, Jones was shortlisted for auditions, as he was the only Monkee who was signed to a deal with the studio, but still had to meet producers Bob Rafelson's and Bert Schneider's standards. Jones sang lead vocals on many of the Monkees' recordings, including "I Wanna Be Free" and "Daydream Believer".

The CBS television series began re-runs in June 1967, Jones co-starred in the Monkees film HEAD, by Jan 1968 Tork had left & by 1970 only Dolenz & Jones remained, recording the LP "Changes". In 1974 Jones re-joined with fellow Monkee Micky Dolenz and songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart as a short-lived group called Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart.

1986 & 1987 saw a lucrative, yet ephemeral stadium tour, sans Nesmith, and a Top 20 hit, "That Was Then, This Is Now" for the band, w/ Dolenz on vocals. A studio LP/CD followed Pool It! w/ a #56 pop hit, "Heart & Soul"

1997 saw Justus the final Monkees album, ironically the 1st album, since 1967's Headquarters where the Monkees performed all instrumental duties.

In February 2011, Jones mentioned rumours of another Monkees reunion. "There's even talk of putting the Monkees back together again in the next year or so for a U.S. and UK tour," he told Disney's Backstage Pass newsletter. "You're always hearing all those great songs on the radio, in commercials, movies, almost everywhere."^[4] The tour came to fruition entitled, "An Evening with The Monkees: The 45th Anniversary Tour."^[5]

Later career

Jones met Laramy Smith in 1967, introduced by Eirik Wangberg (then a producer and co-owner of Sound Records), and they co-produced The Children, an Austin, Texas group Jones discovered while on tour with the Monkees. A single was released on Laramie Records entitled "Picture Me", which reached Billboard at number 2 with a bullet.^{[citation needed]}

In 1978, he appeared with Micky Dolenz in Harry Nilsson's play The Point at the Mermaid Theatre in London. Jones continued acting as he appeared in one episode of The Brady Bunch, two episodes of My Two Dads, an episode of Here Come the Brides, and two episodes of Love, American Style. He also appeared and sang, in animated form, on an episode of The New Scooby-Doo Movies and in an episode of Hey Arnold!. Also, Jones made a cameo appearance as himself in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "SpongeBob vs. The Big One" (his appearance was meant to be a pun on Davy Jones' Locker), a third-season episode of the sitcom Boy Meets World and the Brady Bunch spoof movie of The Brady Bunch Movie. In 1997 he guest-starred as himself on the television show Sabrina the Teenage Witch and sang "Daydream Believer" to Sabrina (Melissa Joan Hart).

In later years, Jones performed with his former bandmates in reunion tours and appeared in several productions of Oliver! as Fagin. He continued to race horses with some success in his native England, while residing in Beavertown, Pennsylvania. He owned and raced horses in the United States and served as a commercial spokesman for Colonial Downs racetrack in Virginia.^[6] Jones maintained a residence in Indiantown, Florida as well.

In 2001, Jones released "Just Me", an album of his own songs, some written for the album and others originally on Monkees releases.^[7] In April 2006, Jones recorded the single "Your Personal Penguin",^[8] written by children's author Sandra Boynton, as a companion piece to her new board book of the same title.^[9] On 1 November 2007, the Boynton book and CD titled "Blue Moo" was released and Jones is featured in both the book and CD, singing "Your Personal Penguin". As a result of the collaboration, Jones became a close friend of Boynton. Also in 2007, Jones recorded the theme for a campy movie comedy called Sexina: Popstar PI.^[10]

In December 2008, Yahoo Music named Jones "Number 1 teen idol of all time".^[11] In 2009 Jones was rated second in a list of 10 best teen idols compiled by Fox News.^[12]

In 2009, Jones released an album entitled "She" which is a collection of handpicked classics and standards from the 1940s through the 1970s. Also in 2009, Jones performed in the Flower Power Concert Series during Epcot's Flower and Garden Festival.^[13]

Horse racing

Jones was a keen horse owner and rider. Training as a jockey in his teens, Jones later said "I made one huge mistake. When The Monkees finished in 1969–70, I should have got away from Hollywood and got back into the racing game. Instead I waited another 10 years. Everyone makes mistakes in life and for me that was the biggest."^[14] He held an amateur rider's licence and rode in his first race at Newbury for trainer Toby Balding. On 1 February 1996 he won his first race, on Digpast, in the one-mile Ontario Amateur Riders' Handicap at Lingfield. ^[14] Jones also had horse ownership interests in both the USA and the United Kingdom and was the representative for a racecourse in Virginia.^[15]

Death

The Martin County Sheriff's Office stated that Jones had complained of breathing difficulties on the morning of 29 February 2012, in Indiantown, Florida, and had been transported to Martin Memorial South Hospital in Stuart, where he was pronounced dead.^[16] Jones is survived by his widow, Jessica, and four daughters.^[17]

The outpouring of grief in response to Jones' death was immediate and profound. Television coverage of Jones' death has been extensive, with generous, lengthy segments featured on Inside Edition (host Deborah Norville admitted she was once president of a Monkees' fan club], Entertainment Tonight, and NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams.^[18] Jones' Monkees bandmates led the tributes following his death; guitarist Michael Nesmith stated that Jones' "spirit and soul live well in my heart among all the lovely people", bassist Peter Tork said, "Adios to the Manchester Cowboy", and speaking to CNN, drummer/singer Micky Dolenz said, "He was the brother I never had and this leaves a gigantic hole in my heart".^[19]

Yahoo! Music, who named Jones the #1 teen idol of all time in 2008,^[20] commented that Jones' death "hit so many people so hard" because "Monkees nostalgia cuts across generations: from the people who discovered the band during their original 1960s run; to the kids who came of age watching 1970s reruns; to the twenty- and thirtysomethings who discovered the Monkees when MTV (a network that ironically owes so much to the Monkees' influence) began airing old episodes in 1986."^[21]

When commenting on Jones' death, Time magazine contributor James Poniewozik praised the classic sitcom, and Jones in particular, saying "even if the show never meant to be more than entertainment and a hit-single generator, we shouldn’t sell The Monkees short. It was far better television than it had to be; during an era of formulaic domestic sitcoms and wacky comedies, it was a stylistically ambitious show, with a distinctive visual style, absurdist sense of humor and unusual story structure. Whatever Jones and The Monkees were meant to be, they became creative artists in their own right, and Jones' chipper Brit-pop presence was a big reason they were able to produce work that was commercial, wholesome and yet impressively weird."^[22]

Personal life

Jones was married three times, to: Linda Haines, Anita Pollinger; and Jessica Pacheco, a Telemundo television presenter (30 August 2009).^[23][24]

He also had four daughters from his first two marriages: Talia Elizabeth (2 October 1968) and Sarah Lee (3 July 1971) with Haines; and Jessica Lillian (4 September 1981) and Annabel Charlotte (26 June 1988) with Pollinger.

Discography

Albums

Singles