Ah, this video brings back some memories. The Monkees have a new album, Christmas Party, and the lead track, "Unwrap You At Christmas," was written by Andy Partridge of XTC, a longtime favorite of this blog.
The video takes on a comic book theme for the Prefab Four, and it includes Julie Newmar, who played the first incarnation of the Catwoman in the 1960s Batman TV series. When I worked at the Congress Hotel in Chicago in the 1995 I was the convention service manager when we hosted a Batman convention. Newmar was bone thin whose face was apparently stretched too far after too many plastic surgeries. She was a prima donna, and some employees claimed, was also drunk the whole convention weekend. Adam West, who played the Caped Crusader, and Burt Ward, who played Robin, were there too. They were completely forgettable, unlike the organizers of the event, who, let's just say, had trouble finding their wallet.
On the upside Frank Gorshin, who played the Riddler opposite the small screen version of the Dynamic Duo, was a class act. But one of the organizers of the event kept telling me that Jim Carrey, who played the Riddler in the movie Batman Forever, which was about to be released, was on his way to meet Gorshin and commiserate on all things Riddler. I didn't swallow the bait. We got our money and I wasn't interested in spreading specious rumors to jumpstart flagging ticket sales.
And now over to the Monkees. Before my ten years at the Congress I worked a bit at the Bismarck Hotel a mile north. I was in a similar job when a Monkees convention came there in 1988. That get-together was unique for me as I was compelled to listen to a slew of complaints from attendees who called the event a ripoff as it mainly consisted of Monkees TV episodes being played on a video loop.
"Hmm," I replied, "you may want to voice your opinion to the man who is running this show. I just make sure the chairs are where there are supposed to be."
Davy Jones, Mickey Dolenz, and Peter Tork appeared at the convention, but only together at the very end and they didn't perform as a group, unless you count 30 seconds of a capella singing as a concert. Michael Nesmith bypassed the shindig.
While it may seem creepy to have the late Davy Jones included in the video, there are two songs on Christmas Party where the Englishman sings lead. He belongs.
Merry Christmas. As for the song? It's a gem. Click below to purchase the album.
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