Song: Different Drum
Artist: Carrie Underwood
Original artists: The Stone Poneys (Linda Ronstadt)
Different Drum was written in 1964 by the late Monkee Mike Nesmith. The original lyrics
were intended for a male singing to his girlfriend. The line “I ain’t saying you ain’t pretty”
is very much a giveaway. That said, the song had its biggest success with female
vocalists although the “pretty” line has always stayed in.
It became a hit in 1967 when performed by The Stone Poneys. It reached No 13 on the
US Billboard chart. However, the band members did not actually play on the track. Their
singer – Linda Ronstadt – certainly appeared and she would go on to great individual
success. A measure of that success is that Ronstadt was inducted into the Rock & Roll
Hall of Fame in 2014 and the Carrie Underwood version in her honour (below) is taken
from that ceremony.
Different Drum was recorded by Ronstadt when she was 21. It was her first hit single.
The Stone Poneys were not the first band to record the song. That honour went to a
little known (to me) outfit called The Greenbriar Boys who included it on a 1966 album.
Nesmith offered it to The Monkees, but the TV show’s producers turned it down.
Numerous artists have since covered the song including Bangles co-founder Susanna
Hoffs. If you dig deep enough on the web there is even a version performed by Raquel
Welch when entertaining American troops. Not included here because I think it’s not her
best work. Instead, I include below Nesmith singing his own composition at the famous
Troubadour Club in Los Angeles in 2018.
