To mark the release of their seminal album Sgt Pepper 50 years ago here's a Monkees cover to cover
Listen to both versions without prejudice and say which you prefer and why.
No other versions matter and yes it was in Shrek.
Is it the 1966 Monkees pure pop version (the writer Neil Diamond did the original) or the 1974 rockier cover by Robert Wyatt produced by Pink Floyd's Nick Mason. Mason also played drums on the record and Andy Summers (later of the Police) played guitar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv2MLlZKarM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5ivg0cDBgo 
Comments
But from the first time I heard the cover by Robert Wyatt, I preferred this, more laconic, version.
Seem to recall seeing this on TOTP.
The pop style just suits the song more
The easiest one yet - The Monkees.
The Monkees were never more than a less talented American copy of The Beatles (Sorry for mentioning the 'B' word Heny). The Neil Diamond song, however, was given the perfect pop production and delivered by the nearly perfect plastic pop band.
Unfortunately we've been dragged back to the same popidolxfactorthevoice manufactured for radio/download music that the Monkees epitomised in the 1960s.
Rant over
I have to choose, so I choose, reluctantly, the Monkees
So it has to be - The Monkees. Sorry Mr Wyatt.
The pace of the song with them is just right.
I also think the vocals are better.
I get that the Wyatt is coloured with semi prog rock motifs and such like, but this is a pretty classic and iconic song, and to be better than the Monkees version is going to take something more startling than Wyatt manages.
Loved the Monkees in my young days and also really in to Wyatt a few years after.
Score draw.
The Monkees 10 brilliant pop song.
Robert Wyatt 0 and that's being generous, another dirge making Joy Division sound upbeat.
Mickey Dolenz was in the studio when the Beatles recorded Sgt Pepper and many people now realise that it was he and the other Monkees who inspired the Beatles.
They were also all very good musicians and could switch instruments ie Davey Jones played drums when Dolenz sang lead, Peter Tork was a keyboard player and guitarist.
Unfortunately the Beatles myth means that the true 60s geniuses ie the Monkees are deliberately overlooked or run down. For instance John Lennon is given credit for his anti-war songs in the 1970s but the first Monkees single in 1966, Last Train to Clarksville, was an anti-Vietnam song.
The Monkees also lead the way in many other ways. Mike Nesmith's country rock and they were also the first video band.
Some old hippies will now try to run down the Monkees and stick up for the manufactured Beatles with their fake scouse accents (an attempt to copy Davey Jones northern accent) but real music fans know.
Mind you, your response is about as clear as a politician on Question Time.
Hart got the idea for the lyrics when he turned on the radio and heard the end of The Beatles "Paperback Writer." He thought Paul McCartney was singing "Take the last train," and decided to use the line when he found out McCartney was actually singing "Paperback Writer." Hart knew that The Monkees TV series was pitched as a music/comedy series in the spirit of The Beatles movie A Hard Day's Night, so he knew emulating The Beatles would be a winner. To do that, he made sure to put a distinctive guitar riff in this song, and wrote in the "Oh No-No-No, Oh No-No-No" lyrics as a response to the Beatles famous "Yeah Yeah Yeah."
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=2840
One would be hard pressed to know Last Train to Clarksville was about a soldier going to Vietnam, even after reading these lyrics.
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/monkees/lasttraintoclarksville.html
Wicked little guitar solo, and a possible alternative song for the team to run out to if we ever ditched Red Red Robin
I idolised them and went to see them at Wembley when I was about 10. At that age I was in love with Davy Jones.