Bobby Hart has died. Best known for penning several Monkees tracks, the songwriter’s death was announced on the band’s Instagram. He was 86.
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Hart’s friend Glenn Ballantyne told Billboard that the songwriter died at his home in Los Angeles. He had been in poor health since breaking his hip last year, Ballantyne told the outlet.
No other details about Hart’s death were immediately available.
In the Monkees’ post, the band remembered Hart as a “songwriting dynamo.” Along with Tommy Boyce, Hart wrote some of the Monkees’ biggest hits.
The pair teamed up to pen “I Wanna Be Free” and the Monkees’ first No. 1 hit, “Last Train to Clarksville.” Together, Hart and Boyce also penned the theme song for Days of Our Lives.
They also wrote the iconic theme song for The Monkees. The NBC sitcom followed the fictional struggling rock band of the same name.
Hart additionally had a successful solo songwriting career, penning tracks for the Partridge Family, Betty Buckley, and New Edition.
What to Know About Bobby Hart
The Monkees wrote that Hart “will be remembered for his incredible talent and his innate spirituality.”
The band’s post also included a quote from Hart, who was born Robert Luke Harshman.
“It’s interesting and gratifying to look back these many years later and see that the Monkees are still with us, and they’re still being played somewhere…the records themselves have been staples that have gone on to sell for years and years,” Hart said. “They still sound pretty fresh, and that we had an opportunity to do a lot of music that was married to visuals, and so, that in itself kinda seems to ensure that they’ll have a life of their own that’ll probably far outlast mine.”
Hart is preceded in death by Boyce, who died by suicide in 1994.
According to The New York Times, Hart is survived by his sons, Bobby Jr. and Bret, whom he shared with his first wife, Becky Brill. He is also survived by his wife, MaryAnn Hart, as well as two sisters and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren, per the outlet.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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