abstract
| - Roger Atkins is a songwriter formerly associated with the Brill Building. His collaboration with Michael Nesmith on "The Kind of Girl I Could Love" was recorded and released by the Monkees on More of the Monkees. As a teenager, Atkins was inspired to become a songwriter after seeing his first Broadway play, The Music Man. Atkins frequently wrote lyrics with songwriting partners who provided the melodies, including frequent partner Neil Sedaka. While working out of the Brill Building he wrote several songs for Screen Gems–Columbia Music, Inc., including "Face Up to It", which David Jones performed on his pre-Monkees solo album. In 1966 Atkins traveled to California at Don Kirshner's behest to collaborate with Michael Nesmith. "Michael didn't really want to write with me, or with anyone for that matter," he recalled in an interview on the Rare Rockin' Records blog. "He never really did any writing with me. He would drop off cassette tapes with snippets of music on them, really more like musical doodling. From these I pieced together two or three usable songs and wrote lyrics, one of which was 'The Kind of Girl I Could Love'". Atkins is best known for co-writing the Animals' "It's My Life", Barbara Lewis's "Make Me Your Baby" and "Workin' on a Groovy Thing" (popularly covered by the 5th Dimension), Ben E. King's "(There's) No Place to Hide", and Tiny Tim's "Community".
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