A singer, actor, and jockey who became a teen idol in the '60s and '70s, David "Davy" Jones' chief claim to fame was his career as a
was born in Manchester, England to a railway fitter and a homemaker. He was raised in a family with four children, three sisters and himself.
. It was not until after his mother's death from emphysema in 1960 that
lost his interest in school and left home to become a horse-racing jockey.
Basil Foster, the jockey
Jones apprenticed with, recognized
Jones' acting and singing ability, and encouraged him to pursue his acting career. His persistence paid off, and
Jones had television parts in
Coronation Street and
June Evening, and a part in the BBC radio play
There Is a Happy Land. It was these appearances, a part in the London and American musical
Oliver!, and an appearance on
The Ed Sullivan Show that led Colpix Records/Columbia Pictures to sign a contract with
Jones. At the age of 20,
Jones had produced his first album, called simply
David Jones.
In September of 1966,
The Monkees first aired. Along with
Peter Tork,
Micky Dolenz, and
Michael Nesmith,
Jones came into the households of thousands each week. Nine albums were released and included songs such as "Daydream Believer," "A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You," and "Valleri," which featured
Jones singing.
The Monkees, although popular with teenage girls, aired only until 1968.
After
the Monkees disbanded,
Jones pursued a solo career, signing with Bell Records. He released several singles with Bell and performed two Japanese tours before signing with MGM in 1973. He made cameo appearances on
The Brady Bunch and
Love American Style. In the mid-'70s,
Jones teamed up with songwriters
Tommy Boyce and
Bobby Hart and ex-
Monkee Micky Dolenz to produce an album and perform on tour.
Jones joined a group called Toast in the early '80s and toured Japan extensively. After the rejuvenation of
the Monkees on MTV and Nickelodeon, three of the original
Monkees (
Jones,
Dolenz, and
Tork) got together to do the album Pool It! and a Christmas medley video. The group also did a 20th anniversary tour in 1986 and then regrouped to do another tour in 1989. The final
Monkees reunion album (this time including
Michael Nesmith in addition to the trio of
Jones,
Dolenz, and
Tork), Justus, arrived in 1996.
During the '90s, aside from the last brief
Monkees reunion,
Jones pursued his solo music career and acted mainly in the theater, starring in
Oliver! and
Grease. His love for horse racing was still very much alive, and in 1996 in Lingfield, England, he won his first amateur race. A resident of Pennsylvania in the U.S.,
Jones wrote two autobiographies,
They Made a Monkee Out of Me and
They Made a Monkee Out of Me...Again!, which recount
Jones' days as a
Monkee, his family, his marriages, and his touring experiences. He also made appearances on several popular late-'90s television shows, including
The Single Guy and
Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.
Jones compiled demos, outtakes, and other rare material for the four-volume Just for the Record CD series released in 1999, and after the turn of the millennium, he also issued two new independent solo albums, Just Me (the title a play on the aforementioned Justus) in 2001 and Just Me 2 in 2004. She, a collection of standards including "Fly Me to the Moon" and "Are You Lonesome Tonight?," followed in 2009. Just over two years later, he suffered a heart attack and died at his home on February 29, 2012.
–
Kim Summers, Rovi