Released May 22, 1967 Length 3:40 | Genre Pop rock Label RCA | |
Format CD, 7" vinyl, 12" vinyl Recorded RCA Victor Studio C, Hollywood, March 4 and 8, 1967 | ||
"Randy Scouse Git" is a song written by Micky Dolenz in 1967 and recorded by The Monkees. It was the first song written by Dolenz to be commercially released, and became a #2 hit in the UK where it was retitled "Alternate Title" after the record company (RCA) complained that the original title was actually somewhat "taboo to the British audience". Dolenz took the song's title from a phrase he had heard spoken on an episode of the British television series Till Death Us Do Part, which he had watched while in England. The song also appeared on The Monkees TV series, on their album Headquarters, and on several "Greatest Hits" albums. Peter Tork has said that it is one of his favorite Monkees tracks.
Contents
Background
According to Dolenz, the song was written about a party that The Beatles threw for the Monkees at the Speakeasy nightclub in London. There are references in the song to the Beatles ("the four kings of EMI") and to other party attendees such as Cass Elliot of The Mamas & the Papas ("the girl in yellow dress") and Dolenz's future wife, Top of the Pops "disc girl" Samantha Juste ("She's a wonderful lady"), ("the being known as Wonder Girl"). The verses and chorus do not relate to each other, with the verses whimsically describing the party and the chorus consisting of Dolenz screaming bigoted remarks at an unseen, long-haired youth.
The phrase "Randy Scouse Git" in Britain directly translated to, according to Dolenz, “horny, Liverpudlian jerk.”, was taken from the 1960s British sitcom Till Death Us Do Part, in which it was regularly used, by the loud-mouthed main character Alf Garnett, played by Cockney actor Warren Mitchell, to insult his Liverpudlian ("Scouse") son-in-law, played by Tony Booth. The show was later adapted into the American sitcom All in the Family, in which the writers replaced the phrase in American scripts with the epithet "Meathead". RCA Records in England told the band that they would not release the song unless it was given an "alternate title" (though, in British English, they may have used the word "alternative"). By his own account, Dolenz said "OK, 'Alternate Title' it is".
The song is played by all four Monkees with Dolenz on vocals, drums and timpani, Davy Jones on backing vocals, Mike Nesmith on guitar, Tork on piano and organ, and producer Chip Douglas (The Turtles) on bass guitar.
Dolenz reprises lyrics from the song in "Love's What I Want," a bonus track to the 2016 Monkees album Good Times! ("Why don't you be like me? Why don't you stop and see? Why don't you hate who I hate kill who I kill to be free?").