“Different Drum” by Linda Ronstadt & The Stone Poneys

"Different Drum" is Michael Nesmith's song, written back in 1964, and he first offered it to his own group, the Monkees, only for the TV show's producers to pass; he got to ham his way through a short comic version in one episode instead. Its real break came in 1967, when Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys cut it for Evergreen, Vol. 2 and took it to number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 12 on Cash Box, with its best showing of all in New Zealand, at number 5.

Nick Venet produced, and the credits are stacked: acoustic guitars from Kenny Edwards, Bernie Leadon and Al Viola, Lyle Ritz on bass, Jim Gordon on drums and, of all things, a harpsichord from Don Randi. Peter Abbott and John Kraus engineered.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.