Davy Jones (musician) - Post-Monkees Career

Post-Monkees Career

In 1967, Jones opened his first store, called Zilch, at 217 Thompson Street in the Greenwich Village section of New York City. The store sold "hip" clothing and accessories and also allowed customers to design their own clothes.

After the Monkees officially disbanded in 1971, Jones kept himself busy by establishing a New York City-style street market in Los Angeles called "The Street," which cost him approximately $40,000. He also collaborated with musical director Doug Trevor on a one-hour ABC television special entitled ‘’Pop Goes Davy Jones’’, which featured new artists the Jackson Five and the Osmonds.

Bell Records, then having a string of hits with The Partridge Family, signed Jones to a somewhat inflexible solo record contract in 1971. Jones was not allowed to choose his songs or producer, resulting in several lackluster and aimless records. His second solo album, Davy Jones (1971) was notable for the song "Rainy Jane", which reached No.52 in the Billboard charts. To promote the album, Jones performed "Girl" on an episode of The Brady Bunch entitled "Getting Davy Jones". Although the single sold poorly, the popularity of Jones's appearance on the show resulted in "Girl" becoming his best remembered solo hit, even though it was not included in the album. The final single, "Road to Love," was poorly received.

Jones also continued acting after the Monkees, either as himself or another character. He appeared in an episode of Here Come the Brides, as well as two episodes each of Love, American Style and My Two Dads. Jones also appeared in animated form as himself in 1972 in an hour-long episode of The New Scooby-Doo Movies.

Despite his initial high profile after the end of the Monkees, Jones struggled to establish himself as a solo artist. Glenn A. Baker, author of Monkeemania: The True Story of the Monkees, commented in 1986 that "for an artist as versatile and confident as (Davy) Jones, the relative failure of his post-Monkees activities is puzzling. For all his cocky predictions to the press about his future plans, Davy fell into a directionless heap when left to his own devices."

In 2009, Jones made a cameo appearance as himself in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "SpongeBob vs. The Big One" (his appearance was meant to be a pun on Davy Jones' Locker). Other appearances include Sledge Hammer!, Boy Meets World, Hey Arnold!, The Single Guy (where he is mistaken for Dudley Moore) and Sabrina the Teenage Witch in which he sang "Daydream Believer" to Sabrina (Melissa Joan Hart). The continued popularity of his 1971 Brady Bunch appearance led to his being cast as himself in The Brady Bunch Movie. Jones sang his signature solo hit "Girl", with a grunge band providing backing, this time with middle-aged women swooning over him. Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork also appeared alongside Jones as judges.

Jones also returned to theatre several times after the Monkees. He appeared in several productions of Oliver! as Fagin, and also co-starred with Micky Dolenz in Harry Nilsson's play The Point at the Mermaid Theatre, London in 1978.

In 2001, Jones released Just Me, an album of his own songs, some written for the album and others originally on Monkees releases. In the early 2000s he was performing in the Flower Power Concert Series during Epcot's Flower and Garden Festival, a yearly gig he would continue until his death.

In April 2006, Jones recorded the single "Your Personal Penguin", written by children's author Sandra Boynton, as a companion piece to her new board book of the same title. On 1 November 2007, the Boynton book and CD titled Blue Moo was released and Jones is featured in both the book and CD, singing "Your Personal Penguin". As a result of the collaboration, Jones became a close friend of Boynton.

In December 2008, Yahoo! Music named Jones the "Number 1 teen idol of all time". In 2009, Jones was rated second in a list of 10 best teen idols compiled by Fox News.

In 2009, Jones released a collection of classics and standards from the 1940s through the 1970s entitled She.