"Your Auntie Grizelda" is a song recorded by the American

pop rock Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre with an emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than rock music. Originating in the late 1950s as an alternative to normal rock and roll, earl ...

group

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 ...

Diane Hildebrand Diane Hildebrand (born April 13, 1945) is an American pop singer-songwriter. She wrote for several musicians during the 1960s and 1970s, but is best remembered for her work with Screen Gems Music Publishing, penning material for the band the Mon ...

wrote the lyrics and Jack Keller composed the music. It is the first released song of the band with

Peter Tork Peter Halsten Thorkelson (February 13, 1942 – February 21, 2019), better known by his stage name Peter Tork, was an American musician and actor. He was best known as the keyboardist and bass guitarist of the Monkees and a co-star of the TV ...

on lead vocals. The song appeared on both the TV series and the 1967 album ''

More of the Monkees ''More of the Monkees'' is the second studio album by the American pop rock band the Monkees. It was recorded in late 1966 and released on Colgems label #102 on January 9, 1967. It displaced the band's own debut album from the top of the ''Billb ...

.'' While originally published by Screen Gems-Columbia Music (BMI), it is now published by Colgems-EMI Music (ASCAP).

Popularization

Although it was never actually released as a single, "Your Auntie Grizelda" has appeared on several of the band's subsequent "Greatest Hits" albums, and the Monkees regularly performed it in their live shows. This was the first released Monkees song to feature

on lead vocals. In the instrumental break, Tork was told beforehand to make nonsensical sounds, according to the songwriter Diane Hildebrand.

Lyrics

"Your Auntie Grizelda" is a general complaint about a prissy and

spinster ''Spinster'' is a term referring to an unmarried woman who is older than what is perceived as the prime age range during which women usually marry. It can also indicate that a woman is considered unlikely to ever marry. The term originally den ...

ish aunt named Grizelda. The verses condemn her as pushy, righteous, and judgemental, with the chorus concluding that "No bird of grace ever lit on auntie Grizelda".

Outside of ''The Monkees'' shows

An instrumental version of the song can be heard during Major Nelson's bachelor party in ''

I Dream of Jeannie ''I Dream of Jeannie'' is an American fantasy sitcom television series, created by Sidney Sheldon that starred Barbara Eden as a sultry, 2,000-year-old genie and Larry Hagman, as an astronaut with whom she falls in love and eventually marrie ...

'' Season 5 Episode 6, and the hippie party in "Never Put A Genie on a Budget" Season 5 Episode 14. An instrumental version also is the background disco music in ''

The Flying Nun ''The Flying Nun'' is an American sitcom about a community of nuns which included one who could fly when the wind caught her cornette. It was produced by Screen Gems for ABC based on the 1965 book ''The Fifteenth Pelican,'' written by Tere Rio ...

'' Season 1 Episode 2.

References

1967 songs The Monkees songs Songs written by Jack Keller (songwriter) Songs written by Diane Hildebrand {{1960s-pop-song-stub