"Saturday's Child" is a song by American pop-rock band

The Monkees The Monkees were an American rock and pop band, formed in Los Angeles in 1966, whose lineup consisted of the American actor/musicians Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork alongside English actor/singer Davy Jones. The group was conc ...

, from their 1966 debut album ''

''. The song features

Micky Dolenz George Michael Dolenz Jr. (born March 8, 1945) is an American actor, musician, TV producer and businessman. He is best known as the drummer and one of three primary vocalists for the pop-rock band the Monkees (1966–1970, and multiple reunions ...

on lead vocals. It was written by

Bread Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour (usually wheat) and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diet. It is one of the oldest human-made f ...

frontman

David Gates David Ashworth Gates (December 11, 1940 – January 5, 2023) was a American singer-songwriter, guitarist, musician and producer, frontman and co-lead singer (with Jimmy Griffin) of the group Bread, which reached the top of the musical charts i ...

. The song is an electric guitar–based rock song. It is widely regarded as one of their best album tracks, with AMG critic Matthew Greenwald saying that it has a "proto- heavy metal guitar riff" and it is "one of the more interesting curios of the early Monkees catalog". Though it was never released as a single, it has been included on several of The Monkees'

greatest hits album A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be crea ...

s. "Saturday's Child" was included on the episode "Monkee vs. Machine" of the series ''

'', which aired on 26 September 1966. This section of the episode, which doubles as a

promotional video In video production, a promotional video is marketing or advertising: Arts, media and entertainment * Promotional recording, an audio or video recording distributed to publicize a recording * Trailer (promotion), a commercial advertisement for a ...

for the song, shows The Monkees playing around on the beach and having fun with five children (at any one time), in a dune buggy, on a swing set, on slides, on a jungle gym, on a horse, on unicycles, and on

Honda Super Cub The Honda Super Cub or Honda Cub is a Honda underbone motorcycle with a four-stroke single-cylinder engine ranging in displacement from . In continuous manufacture since 1958 with production surpassing 60 million in 2008, 87 million in 2014, an ...

motorcycles, and hamming it up driving the

Monkeemobile The Monkeemobile is a modified Pontiac GTO that was designed and built by designer Dean Jeffries for The Monkees, a pop-rock band and television program. The car features a split two-piece windshield, a touring car convertible top, modified rear q ...

around

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

. While originally published by Screen Gems-Columbia Music (BMI) in 1966, the rights are now held by Sony/ATV Tunes LLC (ASCAP).

Herman's Hermits Herman's Hermits are an English beat, rock and pop group formed in 1964 in Manchester, originally called Herman and His Hermits and featuring lead singer Peter Noone. Produced by Mickie Most, the Hermits charted with number ones in the UK a ...

recorded a more acoustic version of the song and released it on their 1967 album ''

There's a Kind of Hush All Over the World ''There's a Kind of Hush All Over the World'' is the fifth album released by MGM Records in the US and Canada for the band Herman's Hermits. It was released in March 1967. In the UK, ''There's a Kind of Hush All Over the World'' is the band's ...

''. Indie rock band Guided by Voices has regularly covered it in their live sets.

See also