From the request line

From time to time, we do requests here at AM, Then FM. Our last post drew a request for more Boyce and Hart.

So tonight, as Bobby Hart celebrates his 71st birthday, here’s a little more from Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, the celebrated pop songwriters who put out three albums of their own stuff in the late ’60s.

When I picked up “I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonite” the other day, I knew just two songs on the LP — the single of the same name and the cover of “Two For the Price Of One.” So we’re exploring this together.

Here are a couple of cuts from the flip side of that LP.

“Goodbye Baby (I Don’t Want To See You Cry)” was released as a single in late 1967 or early 1968, but didn’t do much business in the charts. Written by Boyce and Hart, it seemingly is inspired by the Beatles from their “Magical Mystery Tour” period. Anyone else hear echoes of “Penny Lane” in this one?

Kent Kotal, who’s written extensively about Boyce and Hart on his Forgotten Hits site, quotes Hart as saying this tune caught the attention of the Beach Boys:

“Bruce Johnston approached me at the point where Brian Wilson wasn’t producing the Beach Boys anymore (after “Smile” unraveled in 1967) and asked if Tommy and I would be willing to produce their next session.”

However, Hart also said he and Boyce never did so:

“Unfortunately, we were too busy with our own careers.”

“I’m Digging You Digging Me” sounds good enough to have been a single for either Boyce and Hart or the Monkees, for whom they wrote several hits. Alas, no. But it’s another fine bit of sunny pop goodness.

Both tunes by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, from “I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonite,” 1968.