I'm a Believer

"I'm a Believer"
Single by The Monkees
from the album More of The Monkees
B-side	"(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone"
Released	November 21, 1966
Genre	Pop rock
Length	2:47
Label	Colgems Records
Writer(s)	Neil Diamond
Producer	Jeff Barry
The Monkees singles chronology
"Last Train to Clarksville" (1966) "I'm a Believer" (1966) "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" (1967)

"I'm a Believer" is a song composed by Neil Diamond and recorded by The Monkees in 1966 with the lead vocals by Micky Dolenz. The single, produced by Jeff Barry, hit the number one spot on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart for the week ending December 31, 1966 and remained there for seven weeks, becoming the last #1 hit of 1966 and the biggest-selling record for all of 1967. Because of 1,051,280 advance orders, it went gold within two days of release. It is one of the fewer than thirty all-time singles to have sold 10 million (or more) copies worldwide.

History

Neil Diamond had already recorded this song before it was covered by The Monkees, and it still sometimes appears in his live concerts. A revised recording by Neil Diamond, featuring additional lyrics, appears on the album September Morn, while his original recording appeared on the 1967 album Just for You. Neil Diamond also suggested it to The Fifth Estate who recorded it as a 1967 album cut to follow up their hit "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead". The Monkees' recording kept the novelty hit, "Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron" by The Royal Guardsmen, at number two for four weeks, from reaching the Hot 100's summit.

Recording

Session guitarist Al Gorgoni (who later played on "The Sound of Silence" and "Brown Eyed Girl") had worked on Diamond's "Cherry, Cherry" and also contributed to this song.

The Neil Diamond version was featured in the Coen brothers' film "Blood Simple" in its US home video version, but was later replaced by the Four Tops "It's the Same Old Song," which was the original choice for the film.

In 2008, this song ranked #1 on Dallas station KLUV 98.7FM's Top 500 Memorial Day Countdown, as voted on by the listeners. The song is listed at #48 on Billboard's All Time Top 100. [1]

Other versions

A cover by British singer-songwriter Robert Wyatt was an unlikely hit in the UK in 1974, with a version featuring Fred Frith on violin, Andy Summers (later of The Police) on guitar, and drums by Nick Mason of Pink Floyd, who also produced the recording. It was Wyatt's first recording after the accident which left him a paraplegic.

In 1995, British comedian Vic Reeves teamed up with then-popular band EMF for a version which reached #3 on the UK singles chart.

This song was also covered by Smash Mouth and Eddie Murphy in 2001, as part of the soundtrack to the movie Shrek (the band also released the song on its self-titled album). Eddie Murphy, portraying the character "Donkey", also performed a rendition of the song in the film. The song was chosen for its opening line, "I thought love was only true in fairy tales," which matched the fairy tale theme of the film. Subsequently, the song was played as exit music for the Broadway musical adaptation of the film, for comic effect. A year into the show's run, it was inserted into its finale. A nod to the version by Reeves & Mortimer with EMF is included in Shrek; though the "Oi!" does not appear in any album version of Smash Mouth's cover, it is inserted into the song when it is played in the film's finale, shouted by Snow White's Seven Dwarfs. A different cover, by Weezer, appears in Shrek Forever After.

In 2010, Neil Diamond recorded a stripped down, slow tempo version of the song on his Dreams album, and Paije Richardson performed an I'm a Believer/Hey Ya! mash-up on series seven of The X Factor.

Selected list of recorded versions

• 1966 The Monkees single, also on the 1967 album More of The Monkees
• 1967 The Fifth Estate on the album "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead".
• 1967 The Four Tops on the album Reach Out
• 1967 The Ventures on the 1967 album Guitar Freakout
• 1967 Neil Diamond on the album Just for You, reissued on the 1983 album Classics: The Early Years
• 1967 Caterina Caselli single, sung in Italian with the title Sono bugiarda (I am a liar)
• 1974 Robert Wyatt single, also on the 2004 album His Greatest Misses
• 1979 Bram Tchaikovsky on the album Strange Man, Changed Man
• 1979 Neil Diamond on the album September Morn (with new lyrics)
• 1979 Tin Huey on the album Contents Dislodged During Shipment
• 1985 Barbara Mandrell on the album Get to the Heart
• 1990 Lulu Santos on the album Honululu (with Portuguese lyrics)
• 1992 The Frank and Walters on the charity album Ruby Trax
• 1995 Reeves & Mortimer with EMF, non-album track (#3 UK Singles Chart)
• 1996 Neil Diamond on the album In My Lifetime
• 2001 Cadet on the album Cadet
• 2001 Smash Mouth on the Shrek Soundtrack and on their self-titled album Smash Mouth
• 2001 Eddie Murphy on the Shrek Soundtrack
• 2005 Daniel O'Donnell on his Rock n' Roll Tour
• 2008 Brooke White during the Top 5 Neil Diamond week in season 7 of American Idol
• 2010 Weezer on the Shrek Forever After Soundtrack
• 2010 Neil Diamond on the album Dreams

Preceded by "Good Vibrations" by The Beach Boys	Billboard Hot 100 number one single December 31, 1966 (seven weeks)	Succeeded by "Kind of a Drag" by The Buckinghams
Preceded by "Green, Green Grass of Home" by Tom Jones	UK number one single 19 January 1967 (four weeks)	Succeeded by "This Is My Song" by Petula Clark