Why Does This Exist?: "99 Pounds" by the Monkees

Illustration from the Pine Burr annual of Campbell University, 1912

"99 Pounds" is an odd song recorded by the Monkees under odd circumstances. In early 1967, the Monkees were upset with manager Don Kirshner over their lack of creative control - their standoff with the famous music-biz villain led to the creation of the Monkees-helmed Headquarters, arguably their best album. However, during the standoff, Kirshner hired Jeff Barry (who had written many of the "girl group" hits of the early '60s with partner Ellie Greenwich) to prepare some songs for the Monkees. Barry picked several songs and recorded backing tracks with studio musicians, including a cover of Neil Diamond's "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" (which would be released as a single) and an odd song he'd written called "99 Pounds".

Barry then surreptitiously pulled Davy Jones into the studio without the other Monkees' knowledge, and Jones (a "company man" at heart) recorded vocals for the songs. Barry's studio musicians then overdubbed the backing vocals and handclaps in place of the AWOL Monkees. Some good songs came out of this session, although you could argue whether they are actually Monkees tracks, having been recorded with even less of the band's involvement than usual. "99 Pounds" may be my favorite of the bunch, but it's definitely a weird song. It's about the joys of dating a girl who is 5'2" and 99 pounds - a very specific subject. Apparently, a girl this size is "a little, bitty package of explosivity" and "don't know wrong from right"! It makes sense for the diminutive Davy Jones to sing a song about a borderline "little person", but if you think about the fact that songwriter Jeff Barry was 6'4", the song's obsession with this tiny woman is definitely a little creepier.

The Monkees (or actually Kirshner) chose not to release "99 Pounds" in 1967 - the song sat on the shelf until Jeff Barry produced the Monkees' Changes in 1970. Recorded after Peter Tork and Mike Nesmith had left the band, Changes is not considered a classic-era Monkees record, and it doesn't help that Jeff Barry resorted to old cast-offs like "99 Pounds" to round off the album's tracklist. Listen for the song's highlight, a stuttering clavinet solo by the great Stan Free.

"99 Pounds" by the Monkees