This Wickedly Catchy Love Song Held The No. 1 Spot The Longest In 1967

"I'm a Believer," with all of its infectious and delirious love-at-first-sight energy, spent six weeks at No. 1 on the pop chart in 1967, a feat that no other song would match or surpass. Ascending to No. 1 just after "Last Train to Clarksville," "I'm a Believer" was the second of three chart-toppers for the Monkees, a band assembled by TV and music producers to be an American multimedia answer to Britain's Beatles.

It's part of the true story of the Monkees that the telegenic and sitcom-funny performers who starred on "The Monkees" sang on "I'm a Believer" and other songs for real, while the instrumental parts, at least at first, were recorded by studio musicians. There was a big industry push behind the Monkees, and it recruited some of the best songwriters of the 1960s, including Neil Diamond. Before his career as a solo soft rocker took off, Diamond wrote a number of hit songs for others, including "I'm a Believer" for the Monkees.

And what a song it is that Diamond composed. Full of hooks, and downright giddy with its firsthand account of a man suddenly believing in love after falling head over heels for a woman upon first glance, it's no wonder that "I'm a Believer" was at No. 1 for a lengthy spell in the same year that the Monkees scored four No. 1 albums.

Music publisher Don Kirshner helped manage the Monkees project, and after "Last Train to Clarksville," he asked producer Jeff Barry if he had something even catchier and more broadly appealing. At the time, Barry was fostering the career of Neil Diamond after spotting him playing in a New York coffeehouse. He asked Diamond if he'd be willing to allow the Monkees to record one of his unpublished and unrecorded compositions, and the singer-songwriter allowed "I'm a Believer" to be annexed.

A pop song describes a bit of music that's of interest to the biggest group of people possible as well as a particular sound. "I'm a Believer" is a true pop song on both counts. It bubbles and fizzes with its chugging rhythm and a riff that moves up and down the guitar's fretboard. The melody matches the lyrics because Diamond wrote a song that captures the surprise, joy, and warmth that comes from the early days of a romance. It's also a secular hymn, a song of praise and thanks to the universe for sending love to a person who didn't really even believe in the concept. 

Even before "I'm a Believer" was officially on sale, it was a hit, notching more than a million pre-orders for RCA Records. "I'm a Believer" reached No. 1 just three weeks after its release, spending the last week of 1966 on top and then the first six weeks of 1967, too.