Don Kirshner and Al Nevins owned Aldon Music, a publishing company in New York City that had a team of songwriters including Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weill, Neil Sedaka, Neil Diamond, Paul Simon, Phil Spector, Howard Greenfield, and Jack Keller. Kirshner found early success by pairing songs by these writers with the right singers. Bobby Darin and Tony Orlando were two examples. When Screen Gems-Columbia Music purchased Aldon Music, Kirshner was brought along as part of the deal.
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Kirshner moved to Los Angeles to become the musical director for the television arm of the company. A new project was in the works. It would be a television show about a yet-to-be-named rock band, and Kirshner was in charge of the music. At the same time, Screen Gems-Columbia had hired a songwriting duo for $100 per week each. Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart’s first assignment was to provide the theme music for a new NBC soap opera, Days of Our Lives. They were then brought in to produce the music for what would later be called The Monkees.
The first single was released six weeks before the debut of the television show. The first episode pushed the song up the charts, which, in turn, boosted the ratings of the show, selling more records. The Monkees was a hit! Kirshner, who was referred to as “the man with the golden ear,” was given credit for picking “Last Train to Clarksville” as the lead single. The Monkees would go on to sell more than 75 million records worldwide. Let’s take a look at the story behind “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone” by The Monkees.
I-I-I-I-I’m not your steppin’ stone
I-I-I-I-I’m not your steppin’ stone
You’re trying to make your mark in society
You’re using all the tricks that you used on me
You’re reading all them high-fashion magazines
The clothes you’re wearing, girl, they’re causing public scenes
“I’m a Believer”
In 1997, Kirshner said in the documentary Hey, Hey We’re the Monkees: “My job, basically, was to pick the songs, get a song in each show, and I became the supervisor of the music, the albums, and I had creative control on the entire project.”
When it was time to follow the success of “Last Train to Clarksville,” Kirshner turned to Neil Diamond and chose his song, “I’m a Believer,” to be the second single by The Monkees.
Kirshner continued, “I felt that if I could have Micky Dolenz sing to every girl in America, ‘I saw your face and I’m a believer,’ it would be a No. 1 smash.”
I said, I-I-I-I-I’m not your steppin’ stone
I-I-I-I-I’m not your steppin’ stone
(No!)
Not your steppin’ stone
Not your steppin’ stone
When I first met you, girl, you didn’t have no shoes
But, now you’re walking around like you’re front-page news
You’ve been awful careful ’bout the friends you choose
But you won’t find my name in your book of “who’s-who?”
The Flip Side
Monkee Davy Jones said about Kirshner: “He was the guy that put songs in TV shows and movies, and you came to him. He had the Carole Kings and Neil Diamonds, and the Sedakas and the Nilssons, and Carole Bayer Sager, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weill, Leiber & Stoller, Sears & Roebuck, Neiman Marcus—he had them all under contract.”
Of course, those last two were jokes, but he did have a huge stable of talent from which to draw. Kirshner chose a Boyce and Hart song, “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone,” to be the flip side of the second single. The A-side went to No. 1, while the B-side peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100.
I said, I-I-I-I-I’m not your steppin’ stone
(No, girl, not me!)
I-I-I-I-I’m not your steppin’ stone
(No!)
Not your steppin’ stone
I’m not your steppin’ stone
Boyce & Hart
While The Monkees had success with different songwriters, Boyce and Hart wrote “(Theme From) The Monkees,” “I Wanna Be Free,” “Last Train to Clarksville,” “This Just Doesn’t Seem to Be My Day,” “Let’s Dance On,” “Gonna Buy Me a Dog,” “She,” “I’ll Spend My Life With You,” “Words,” “P.O. Box 9847,” “Valleri,” “Me Without You,” “Teardrop City,” “Looking for the Good Times,” “Ladies Aid Society,” and “I Never Thought It Peculiar,” all of which were all recorded by The Monkees.
Said Jones, “I thought Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart had a great collection of material, all different kinds of songs, and I really think they were the best for The Monkees.”
Added Hart, “It was a very smart idea to combine the visual sitcom with a group that could sell records, and, of course, the songs were a big part of it, and I think that having the Nevins/Kirshner music stable of writers was just a wonderful part of The Monkees’ success.”
Not your steppin’ stone (step-step-steppin’ stone)
Not your steppin’ stone (step-step-steppin’ stone)
Not your steppin’ stone (step-step-steppin’ stone)
Not your steppin’ stone (step-step-steppin’ stone)
No, girl, I’m not your steppin’ stone
Not your steppin’ stone (step-step-steppin’ stone)
Not your steppin’ stone (step-step-steppin’ stone)
Paul Revere & The Raiders
“(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone” was first recorded by the Liverpool Five in 1966 but was not released before Paul Revere & The Raiders included the song on their Midnight Ride album. The Monkees included the song on their second album, More of The Monkees. The Sex Pistols covered it on their Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle soundtrack.
In 2016, Monkees bassist/keyboardist Peter Tork told Entertainment Weekly, “The songs that we got were really songs of some vigor and substance. ‘(I’m Not Your) Stepping Stone’ is not peaches and cream. It comes down hard on the subject, poor girl. And the weight of the song is indicated by the fact that the Sex Pistols covered it. Anybody trying to write ’60s songs’ now thinks that you have to write ’59th St. Bridge,’ which is an OK song but has not got a lot of guts. ‘Stepping Stone’ has guts.”
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Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
