Throwback: Happy 82nd Birthday, Peter Tork!

February is a busy month. Not only is it Black History Month — but there are a batch of birthdays this month that include:

• Rick James, who was born 76 years ago on February 1
• OutKast‘s Big Boi, who celebrated his 49th birthday on February 1
• The Temptations‘ second and longest tenured lead vocalist Dennis Edwards, who was born 81 years ago on February 4
• Bobby Brown, who celebrated his 55th birthday on February 5
• Bob Marley, who was born 79 years ago on February 6
• J. Dilla, who was born 50 years ago on February 7
• French touch pioneer and one-half of acclaimed electronic outfit Daft Punk, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, celebrated his 50th birthday on February 8
• Motley Crüe‘s Vince Neil celebrated his 63rd birthday on February 8
• The 84th anniversary of The Doors‘ Ray Manzarek was on February 12
• Bad Brains‘ H.R. celebrated his 68th birthday on February 12

As a child of the 80s, I grew up watching a lot of unsupervised music programming on TV. I have fond memories of watching The Monkees repeats on Nickelodeon, and around that time, they had a reunion/comeback album that was quite a big deal. (A couple of videos from the album were aired on MTV at some point or another.)

The Monkees was a bit of goofy, clearly Beatles-esque fun with some really great songs. I somehow didn’t know that Neil Diamond wrote “I’m A Believer,” but now that I think of it, I hear Neil Diamond in the song. He also wrote a handful of other Monkees songs. Go figure! The Monkees brought folks a lot of joy throughout their run together.

The band’s Peter Tork was born 82 years ago today. Happy birthday, Peter! Happy birthday, wherever you are!