Released November 6, 1967 Producer(s) Chip Douglas | Length 4:28 | |
Genre Pop rock, experimental rock, psychedelic pop, psychedelic rock Label Colgems 66-1007 / RCA 1620 Writer(s) Gerry Goffin, Carole King | ||
"Star Collector" is a song written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King in 1967 and recorded by The Monkees (with lead vocals by Davy Jones). The song is included on their fourth album, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. It was also featured in five second-season episodes of their television series: "The Wild Monkees", "Hitting the High Seas", "Monkees Watch Their Feet", "Monkees in Paris" and "Monkees Mind Their Manor". "The Wild Monkees" uses an early mix of the song (without Moog synthesizer) while the other episodes use the released mix.
The song is about the phenomenon of groupies, and takes a dismissive attitude toward them ("Think I'll let her keep on going, wherever it is she's going to / Give her an autograph and tell her 'It's been nice knowing you'"... "It won't take much time / Before I get her off my mind").
The Monkees's version of the song was one of the first pop records to include a Moog synthesizer, played and programmed by synthesist Paul Beaver. Peter Tork didn't think much of Beaver's performance, and told Rhino Records later "He played it like it was a flute or something," preferring Micky Dolenz's more random use of the Moog on "Daily Nightly" (which also appeared on Pisces) to produce spacey sounds.