Carole King - Pleasant Valley Sunday (1966 Demo)
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- Опубликовано: 14 окт 2024
- Carole's 1966 demo taken from her "The Legendary Demos" compilation. It was co-written with her husband at the time, Gerry Goffin and went to Number 3 on the charts for The Monkees in 1967.
I saw an interview with Peter Tork where he was talking about people complaining about the Monkees not writing their own songs. He said their producers were buying songs from some of the best songwriters in the industry. Then, laughing, he said "You expect me to write a song as good as a Carole King song?!"
Damn, I never knew Carole wrote this. But it doesn't surprise me. One of the most beautiful songs ever. I really like this version. Her voice is so ethereal.
I have never heard Carole King's original version before. Oh man...it is deep. I love it!
She's such an incredible talent. Wow!
It has a beautiful wistful quality.
Songwriters of Carole Kings caliber come along once in a lifetime.
Im so happy it was during mine. 😊
Once in a lifetime -- IF you're lucky
It's no overstatement, Carol King is a national treasure.
Totally agree :-)
AMEN🙏🤗
Carole King. Quite simply one of the best pop writers to ever come down the pike.
so correct
The pop Bob Dylan! ❤
@@tpatrick44 carol klein and husband gerry coffin wrote countless great songs!!! Be Blessed
I find her voice quite harsh as she tends to shout a lot of her numbers. Can't disagree that she's a great songwriter though.
Her husband , Gerry, wrote most of the lyrics. He gets so little credit. Probably because Carole went on to write and record after the breakup.
Just bloody awesome
The first 8 bars of the chorus move me to tears whenever I come back to this. Those two chords, the voices, the scruffy rhythm section, it's all just so beautiful.
WHAT A TREAT! Carole ROCKS ! The Monkees / Mickey Dolenz and the crew (w THE WRECKING CREW) added some niceness too.
I always complain about how irrelevant videos get to my feed and then there’s this gem.
Carole King - songwriting genius.
It's hard to believe Carole King was only twenty years old when she wrote and recorded this, one of the most indelible songs of the Pop era. This version has a twenty-year-old's wistfulness that the Monkees' version replaced with a dose of 60's indignation -- and that's not a criticism of the Monkees' version, which I love. This is a beautiful recording in its own right, and we can be grateful it somehow survived in the archives until now.
Brilliant analysis.
24, I believe
@@imastayathomedad86 As Vic Berger says in the heading: "It was CO-written with her husband at the time, Gerry Goffin..."
I didnt realise Carole wrote this.
Why is it hard to believe that young people make great art? Do some research...
Amazing how fresh and non-dated this recording sounds... Carole's talent is timeless.
How true!
It really doesn't sound like something that was recorded in the mid-sixties, does it?
It's been said before about Carole King: her demos could knock the spots off most actual single versions.
"It's been said before about Carole King: her demos could knock the spots off most actual single versions."
That's why she made Tapestry
@@arkady714 Different ... not Better. Both timeless! The guitar riff in The Monkees' version is incredibly simple and infectious.
@@arkady714 I have to say as well that it's different not better.
Totally agree.
Even if I am the living embodiment of everything that Gerry Goffin's lyrics are rejecting here.
Lol
As much as I like the Monkees version for throwing every trick from "Revolver" at the arrangement and an excellent Dolenz vocal, This has such a crystalline quality and hints at how it might have worked even better as a Mamas and the Papas song.
It's amazing how everything sounds completely different, depending on who does it. "Dedicated to the One I Love" was a perfect example. The Shirelles did an R & B cover that sounded absolutely hideous. John Phillips' arrangement was vastly superior, especially the piano solo.
With Cass Elliott lead singing. That would have worked
Astute.
I'm glad the monkees got ahold of it, pisces,Aquarius,Jones Ltd. Was the Monkees finest hour.
NO! The monkees version was more powerful!
I normally prefer originals but this is too low key for the song.
Carole gave us so many great songs. Lucky enough she shared them with the Monkees, and yes, I do realize how great the Monkees were. I lived and breathed them growing up.❤
Before her recording career began she spent a decade as one of the best songwriters to come out of the Brill Building.
Carol wrote this song while she lived in West Orange, NJ. Pleasant Valley Road is a main road that goes through several towns in the area. One of my fraternity brothers lived off of the road so one day I asked him "do you have a color TV in every room?" He thought about and answered, "They're not all color."
+david munro Thanks for sharing the origin of this song. I learned something new today.
Lol. Suburbs suck
That's so cool. It was such a thing back in..."Status-symbol Land"
toss between this and Valerie for me :)
You betcha! Pleasant Valley WAY.... :))
That was the music we loved
Are you listening young people?
Unfortunately, I don’t think they are. They don’t know what real talent sounds like….especially with pitch control, auto tune, and other studio tricks. Now they expect vocalists to have perfect pitch 🙄😝
Well, as I recall, the explanation of this song’s lyrics had nothing to do with how Carole King was feeling about moving out of NY City…it was her then husband Gerry Goffin who wrote the lyrics, while she wrote the music! He HATED living in suburbia. So, for the folks who have left comments about her lyrics, they’re not her thoughts, dreams, feelings, etc. Just FYI.
What has always amazed me about Carole King’s demos are the vocal arrangements that she’s laid out for whoever recorded the song. It’s a real treat for her fans to listen to her demos. They were always highly sought after by musicians/songwriters/producers for many years before their release ❤❤❤
This is now my favorite version of this song... She has a soulfulness that makes you feel what she was saying...
Carol King is one of the greatest song writers. I think she has something like a 150 hits that she wrote for herself and others. Tapestry was one of her best albums it was everywhere in the 70s.
Had no idea she wrote this.
One of the greatest songs ever written.
This as a DEMO is incredible.
And Mickey Dolenz nailed the released version.
I could not agree more. Great Song, incredible demo, and minimal deviation by the Crew in the final version. King is a national treasure.
Naturally I'm used to the Mickey Dolenz Monkees version of this song.
But although the arrangement is different I loved hearing it sung by the 'author' of this song....
Absolutely agree. Mickey's distinctive voice and delivery made more than a few Monkees' songs great. But don't forget Michael Nesmith's incredible, inspired guitar figure throughout the song. Even Carole herself uses that version when she performs live.
😂
She and Neil Diamond wrote so many great hits. It's hard to believe two people could be so prolific at such a young age.
Think you mean Neal Sedaka 🤷♂️
@@benburra6655 OK, so I didn't include him. Thanks, Captain Obvious.
@@benburra6655 Neil Diamond wrote many of his songs and a Monkees hit “I’m a Believer”.
@@ikkenhisatsu7170 and all three are Jewish! Where would the world be without them?
@@dovidlerner226. Well, there would be no American musicals for a start!
The guitar riff on the monkee version is classic. This demo is fantastic! King is a treasure.
Thanks for this video. I've always loved this song, but I'd never heard Carol King sing it . What a jewel. A time machine.
Her demos are so much better than anything put out today.
Yeah.. hate that newer version
Sounds like AI did it
Total ass😆
Yet another song that I had no idea was written by Carole King. She was a heck of a songwriter, one of the best pop songwriters there ever was.
....did she write the lyrics to this particular song...?
@@chatham43 she and her husband Gerry Goffin are credited equally for "words and music"
King wrote about the world I dreamed of living in when I was a kid. Unfortunately, I lived in a trailer park without paved roads that was very violent. Both my dad and brother were shipped over to Vietnam, and I could only live my life as was. Thank God for my loving mother and five brothers who loved me and sometimes protected me. And finally, my dad who was my hero and always will be. I often wonder how I would have turned out growing up in suburbia, the place where Carole was trying to escape.
Just like you, as a kid I dreamt and wished for the supposed boredom and tedium of suburbia that spoilt middle-class kids were trying to escape. If only they knew just how fortunate they actually were.
Goffin, her husband at the time wrote the lyrics. King said Suburbia with the two kids was her dream, and Goffin hated it. Pleasant Valley was a street in the neighborhood.
I grew up in the country on a farm in rural Pennsylvania in the ‘60’s. Music was the escape for all of us. 🙏🏻💕
@@Sandi-ke9mi I grew up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Sports and music were my passions.
@@RELopez-mk4ic 🥰🙌🏻💕
This is a treasure. I didn't even know these demos existed.
Thank you for posting them.
I almost feel like the Monkees should have made her the Fifth Monkee. They would have sounded great together.
‘Made’ Carol King a Monkee? She’d laugh. Carol King released Tapestry which has been certified 14× Platinum, sold an estimated 25 million copies worldwide, and is one of the best-selling albums of all time. Tapestry won four Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Record of the Year….and has the record of most weeks at number 1 of any female artist. That’s like the Go-Go’s ‘making’ Madonna a member. On what planet do you think Carol would have agreed?
@Rick Roll no need to get upset. The observation was, they'd have sounded great together. And they probably would have. That's all.
@@rickroll9086 You do realize the "fifth Monkee" comment was a joke, right? 🤦♀️
The song always had a bit of a darker undertone, no matter how upbeat The Monkees presented it, it still carried the message of the younger generation's dissatisfaction with mundane middle-class life. At the end, where she sings " I don't want to see another pleasant valley sunday", it really takes it to a different level. There's more despair in that lyric. It can still be about wanting to see the world outside Pleasant Valley, but there's room for a more desperate if not even su i dl. interpretation. Sometimes we forget how strong and emotional the "generation gap" of the 60s was. It's easy to think of those boomers coming of age in the 60s as having been spoiled growing up in boom times of the post war era, with cheap educational opportunities, but there was a deep disconnect between them and their parents who grew up in the depression and came of age fighting a world war.
You may be reading too much into it. While I agree with your sentiment, she literally lived in the St. Cloud neighborhood of West Orange, NJ, near Pleasant Valley Way, and her laments were aimed at suburban life, and the fact that she moved to the suburbs while all of her friends/colleagues were still in Manhattan. It's a great song, nonetheless, but the meaning is definitely a lot simpler.
Very well put.
Don’t worry Biden will destroy the middle class and you can live in your daddys basement with Ll the other rats.
@@jeffjohnson1302your orange savior destroyed the economy
Well, she wasn't a boomer, nor were the Monkee's, Beatles or any of the bands of the 60's. They were Silent Gen. I'm a boomer, and I was a little kid when this song came out, certainly not part of thier generation, just old enough to observe it, and love it too. The Boomers made the eighties, the Duran-Durans, Hair Metal, New Wave, etc. That's my age group, and I'm nearly 70 now.
This is one of my favorite Monkees songs....and I have to say....as much as I like their version....I'm really loving this demo....
This is not a Monkees song. It is a Carole King song.
@@patszer8314 I didn't say the Monkees wrote it...but they DID perform it..and it's the version that 99.9% of people know. And, I still like this demo. 👍
Carole King is up there with Lennon/McCartney or Brian Wilson in my book. What's not to like? Its a work of pop perfection
subg88 I couldn’t agree more 🌹
The Monkees didn't even play their own instruments and never wrote anything except for Mike Nesmith who wrote Different Drum while Carole King should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for her virtuosity as a song writer and performer and whenever I hear "Pleasant Valley Sunday" I always think of Carole King and nobody else.
Wow! I've never heard this version ❤️ love it.
She is such a prolific writer of so many cool songs! The "Porpoise Song" and "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" are eternal classics!
This womans talent is just off the chart! There will never be another like her!
This demo is timeless. Such an awesome tune. No gimmicks just great writing and arranging.
Carole was a customer of mine when I was selling computers at 47th Street Photo in NYC in the 90s. She was so cool and grounded, for someone who's written so much amazing music (with Gerry Goffin). Class act.
Both with Gerry Goffin and without!
What an amazing 2 minutes and 30 seconds. The lyrical message is crystal clear, the melody and rhythm is beautiful, and the vocals are sublime. Some "demo." Wow!
This is what I love about RUclips. Stumbling across gems like this.
I live just off Pleasant Valley Road in my home town. I think about this song every time I make the turn to go home... and it makes me smile! :)
Damn!! She could have released this and it would have been a hit!!
Thank you. A beautiful and sophisticated melody.
...does anybody appreciate how "Magical" the Monkees acutally were?
The Monkees were NOT magical in anyway. They were 4 "stiffs" made famous by 2 talented TV producers and Don Kirshner. They were a manufactured product right off the assembly line, like the recent boy bands NSYNC, The Backstreet Boys and other recent puke pop groups.
Laraine Hutchinson Regardless of how they came together, they were still an amazing and talented band.
Absolutely LOVE the Monkees!!!
Ignatz Mouse The album was only number one for ONE WEEK after the word got out that most of the songs sucked and weren't as good as the material on the 1st 2 LPs. The only reason the fans bought it was because they thought it would be like the 1st two albums. Whew were they ever disappointed. There was no hit single from the album either. The Girl I Knew Somewhere barely scraped into the Top 40 at #39. Stop believing all the fawning propaganda you read in Monkees books. Kirshner and the 2 TV show producers made them stars. Those 4 dopes had little to do with it.
Laraine Hutchinson The album was #1 for one week because the Beatles came out with Sgt. Pepper's the next week, and they held the number two spot for quite a while. And if I'm not mistaken, their next album got to number one, so I don't think the fans were too disappointed.
Just love the drumming !
Beautifully, quintessentially 60s, a trip back to my pre-teens.
I love this song with Carole. Never heard this song with her. Thanks for sharing!
She remains just as brilliant as she was when I was growing up listening to her. ❤❤❤
Benign on the surface, this song plunges daggers into a lot of people's vacuous notions of success and happiness. Brilliant!
YES. And it's not the only one... I bet most people never realized Boyce & Hart's "Last Train To Clarksville" was an ANTI-Viet Nam War song.
I learned years ago that Carole King is a national treasure. I was 10 when the Monkees began on tv and began releasing records. Yep, I bought every Monkees abum. Most of it was bubblegum, but there also many of their songs penned by good musicians. This song is different, even though I was a kid I could tell just how great of a song this is. This demo is beautiful. Thank you for posting this!
This song has every 1960's trick in it--from the great vocal(s), and studio the band doing their thing. Just great--I agree with others saying this don't sound like no demo.
I love the drum-fills... this means they had to play this quite a few times.
It's a demo on that it was written for the Monkees. But excellent?
Carole is one of the amazing songwriters and vocalists ever.
Easily on par with Stephen Foster, Scott Joplin, Duke Ellington and Cole Porter
@@italia689 ...and Weird Al Yankovic.
Magic was in the air back in the day
@@davidlafleche1142l.o.l.
Thanks for the opportunity to hear this version. It actually sounds so much better than the Monkees version to me, not needing any of the recording tricks they used to hype it up, not that I disliked their version - one of my all-time favourite tunes, but this has a much more timeless sound as a result.
It was only a demo and never meant for public consumption, so really it can't be compared to other versions. She was merely trying to sell the song to someone else.. So the fact that it is still this good speaks to her enormous talent. Carole King is just amazing!!
What a glorious discovery this is. The song has such a Carole King-esque vibe in this demo. 🙂❤️✌️
Yes sounds heavenly….this is a full on take no demo. Her voice and her use of time tone are ethereal
I had no idea that Carole wrote this!
Carole King's voice is so crystal clear, and for some reason the lyrics resonste with me a lot more in her version (which I heard for the first time a few months ago).
I love the Monkees' version, but it feels more lika a pop hit and this feels more like very artful social commentary to me.
Genius!!! She’s written some of the best tunes ever.
Carole King,
As talented as she was beautiful, in every sense of the word.
She gave us such incredible gifts.
Part of herself.
RIP Gerry Goffin (2013).
Used to drive Pleasant valley way daily when I lived in West Orange
Brilliant! Carole King gets a little more recognition of her unlimited talent thanks to your sharing, Vic Berger. Everyone needs to know you have to keep classics like this alive by posting them. Thanks again.
I never heard this verion before- I enjoy it much more than the Monkees singing it! Classic for sure!!!
Well, I never knew the Carole King wrote Pleasant Valley Sunday. She is perfect…..!
Great singer. Great songwriter , great musician , and a beautiful face , Blessed
Few demo songs and their Hit versions both become timeless. This is one of them.
Just to be clear:
I ❤ Carole King. And,
I ❤ Lani Hall (of Brasil 66).
It must have been a lot like work for Carole King. Putting out hit after hit, while trying to live a fulfilling life in other areas.
Much later, on an awards show, she joked about some of the difficulties she faced in her personal life. But, I know they weren't funny at the time.
May God bless all those who have blessed me with a musical foundation and a musical past.
I barely made it with you. I certainly couldn't have made it without you.
Wonderful!
And I can’t help but think: RIP Davey, Peter and Mike.
My favorite Goffin-King song. They were writing about where they were living at the time: Pleasant Valley Way in West Orange, NJ. I saw the Monkees (Peter, Micky, and Davy) in 2001 and Mike and Micky in 2018. Of course this song was the finale.
Beautiful song beautifully sung. The Monkees did a great job of this song.
Wow! Heard of it but didn’t hear it until now. I love the layers. Fabulous.
when will i ever stop being amazed by this woman how could i be her biggest fan since 1971 AND NOT KNOW SHE WROTE THIS SONG UNTIL I SAW THIS CLIP.......ALL HAIL QUEEN CAROLE
Wow, this is amazing… and that reverb on the snare drum sound was extremely forward thinking. This sound was omnipresent on countless hit records in the 1980’s.
I just can't get over how good this recording is, always Loved Carole King anyway
A most wonderful, beautiful, talented, gracious, fantastic woman of which I have enjoyed her music and voice for most of my life! God bless you lady, you have given me so much joy and happiness. All my love to you xxx
I like her version the best and this is the first time I have heard it.
My 21 year old son is a big Carole King and we both love this song. A classic.
This is a DEMO??? It has great production quality!!
You're surprised that a Carole King demo would be of this quality?
She had already had studio connections for years.
Tom Lienert It's not that Carole King can't do quality productions, it's just a lot went into this demo. Most demos are simple. Usually piano and singer. This sounds as though it was more than just a demo. Almost as if her version was intended to be a single itself.
Bradley Scarton Yes. There is a banjo in there. Wonder if that's Peter Tork?
I'm sure it's a "demo" in the sense that she was trying to sell the song and used this recording to do so and not strictly speaking a studio session for an album
What a delight to stumble across on RUclips. Wonderful. What talent she has.
I love this better than the Monkees version which is great.
Kind of nice, so simple and clear. You actually hear it - like you're sitting next to her on the piano bench.
This is incredible. Don't know where you found this but thank you. We love the Monkees version but this is better---purer, undiluted. Sounds like she could've written it for the Byrds. Love it.
Just watched the Monkees show, and they do a magnificent job at performing this song.
You can still hear her singing in the background of the Monkees version.
Unfortunately, many people seem to forget Gerry Goffin when They talk about Carol King. Gerry was the one who wrote the lyrics to this song.
He could still have laughed all the way to the bank. r.i.p.
Brilliant
Let's try to spell her name right!
@@tovarisch2788 " I would like to buy a vowel please Pat"
What a team! Gerry Goffin and Carole King!
This version is so beautiful. Such a wistful quality.
She is so incredibly talented.
I think I hear Mama Cass on harmony in there
Several of the musicians living together in Topanga Canyon had "studios" in their house...I wouldn't be surprised to find out this demo was recorded in one of them, and Carole asked Cass to join in
This has to be quite the find, thank you so much for posting!
Fantastic. Wonderful. No matching Carole King's voice.
This is amazing! I had never heard this version before but it just gave me chills! I shouldn't be surprised though, Carole King is a wonderful performer!
In the 1970s it was our custom to look at the record collection of people that you just met. Everyone had Tapestry.
I have it in CD today.
Merci.
Great Demo version. Better than the finished article. Carol had a great voice and was an awesome songwriter.
It's only now many many years later people appreciate these long forgotten treasures.
Always loved the tune for the complex chord changes and harmonies. Thanks!
I can guarantee that if The Bangles had heard this back in the day, it'd have been a staple.
If only!! (And please come back, Micki...)
Gorgeous! Thanks for sharing!!
When she sang “I don’t ever want to see” instead of “I need a change of scenery” I thought it was just a throwaway lyric, but right away it made total sense when she then sang the chorus! Maybe it was a bit too acerbic for the fun loving Monkees to sing that line? Anyway, I love this version! Never heard it til now!
This version is new to me too mate. I love finding all sorts of great stuff on YT 😉
Yeah...changes the WHOLE meaning of the entire song...although Monkees' version hints at it
Amazing. Simplicity at its best.
Another song I didn't realise she'd written, prolific ❤️
Carol is definitely one of the best song writers. Period.
I love this song. Carole King's voice is lovely. I like the Monkees version aswell
This is great because it showed the evolution a song will go through in the hands of other writers, producers, and musicians.