Your Auntie Grizelda
| "Your Auntie Grizelda" | |
|---|---|
| Song by The Monkees | |
| from the album More of The Monkees | |
| Released | January 10, 1967 |
| Recorded | October 23, 1966 |
| Studio | American, Studio City, California |
| Genre | Psychedelic pop |
| Length | 2:30 |
| Label | Colgems |
| Composer(s) | Jack Keller |
| Lyricist(s) | Diane Hildebrand |
| Producer(s) | Jeff Barry, Jack Keller |
"Your Auntie Grizelda" is a song recorded by the American pop rock group the Monkees. Diane Hildebrand wrote the lyrics and Jack Keller composed the music. The song appeared on both the TV series and the 1967 album More of the Monkees. While originally published by Screen Gems-Columbia Music (BMI), it is now published by Colgems-EMI Music (ASCAP).
Popularization
Although it was never actually released as a single, "Your Auntie Grizelda" has appeared on several of the band's subsequent "Greatest Hits" albums, and the Monkees regularly performed it in their live shows. This was the first released Monkees song to feature Peter Tork on lead vocals. In the instrumental break, Tork was told beforehand to make nonsensical sounds, according to the songwriter Diane Hildebrand. The song's theme is based on the Rolling Stone's hit song "19th Nervous Breakdown" (1966)
Content
Lyrically, "Your Auntie Grizelda" is a complaint about how disagreeable a certain Grizelda (aunt of the individual whom the narrator is addressing) is, how strongly that individual takes after her aunt, and how much the aunt hates him (the narrator). "Mother-In-Law," which Ernie K-Doe popularized, is in a lyrically similar vein.
Outside of The Monkees shows
An instrumental version of the song can be heard during Major Nelson's bachelor party in I Dream of Jeannie Season 5 Episode 6, and the hippie party in "Never Put A Genie on a Budget" Season 5 Episode 14. An instrumental version also is the background disco music in The Flying Nun Season 1 Episode 2.