Saturday's Child
"Saturday's Child" is a popular song, written by David Gates and performed by The Monkees. The song is an electric guitar–based rock song. The song is now 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". The song still gets regular play on Oldies radio stations and has also been covered by several artists. The song is also featured on several "greatest hits" albums by The Monkees. The song was originally the second track on their self-titled debut album The Monkees with Micky Dolenz on lead vocals. The promotional video, which aired during the 26 September 1966 "Monkee vs. Machine" television show, features 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 motorcycles, and hamming it up driving the Monkeemobile around Southern California.
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 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.
Indie rock band Guided by Voices has regularly covered it in their live sets.