Stranger Things Have Happened is a 1994 album by former Monkees

The Monkees

The Monkees are an American pop rock group. Assembled in Los Angeles in 1966 by Robert "Bob" Rafelson and Bert Schneider for the American television series The Monkees, which aired from 1966 to 1968, the musical acting quartet was composed of Americans Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork,...

 member Peter Tork

Peter Tork

Peter Tork is an American musician and actor, best known as a member of The Monkees.-Early life:Tork was born Peter Halsten Thorkelson in Washington, D.C.. Although he was born in 1942, many news articles report him as born in 1944 in New York City as this was the date and place given on early...

. Although he had been performing since the 1960s, this was his first solo album. The album is out of print on CD but is currently sold online as a digital download

Music download

A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...

, on websites such as iTunes.

The album is notable for including some of Peter Tork's own songwriting, and for the unusual range of styles he performs, including folk ("Giant Step"), hard rock ("Miracle") and pop ("MGB-GT").

Track listing

1. "Stranger Things Have Happened" (3:14) (Michael Levine, Rudetsky)
2. "Get What You Pay For" (2:50) (Peter Tork)
3. "Sea Change" (4:02) (Peter Tork)
4. "Giant Step" (2:16) (Gerry Goffin
   Gerry Goffin
   Gerry Goffin is an American lyricist. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 with former songwriting partner and first wife, Carole King. he has co-written six Billboard Hot 100 chart-toppers.-Career:Goffin enlisted with the Marine Corps Reserve after graduating from...
   
   , Carole King
   Carole King
   Carole King is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King had an album, Tapestry, top the U.S...
   
   ) (remake of "Take a Giant Step", featured on the Monkees' debut album The Monkees
   The Monkees (album)
   The Monkees is the first album by the band The Monkees. It was released in October 1966 by Colgems Records in the United States and RCA Records in the rest of the world. It was the first of four consecutive U.S. number one albums for the group, taking the top spot on the Billboard 200 for 13 weeks....
   
   )
5. "Milkshake" (3:07) (Martin Briley))
6. "MGB-GT" (2:44) (Peter Tork)
7. "Miracle" (2:30) (Peter Tork)
8. "Pirates" (3:50) (Nick Thorkelson)
9. "Gettin' In" (3:35) (Peter Tork) (originally appeared on the Monkees album Pool It!
   Pool It!
   Pool It!, issued 1987 by Rhino Records, is a pop/rock album by The Monkees. It was the first "reunion album" by the band after their 1986 rebirth, and it marked the return of Peter Tork along with Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones...
   
   )
10. "Tender Is" (3:20) (Peter Tork)
11. "Higher and Higher
    Higher and Higher
    Higher and Higher may refer to:* Higher and Higher , a 1940 Broadway musical* Higher and Higher , a 1943 film adaptation of the musical* "Higher and Higher" , a 1969 song by The Moody Blues...
    
    " (3:51) (Jackson, Miner, Smith)

Guests

The album features several notable guest musicians making musical cameos, including James Lee Stanley

James Lee Stanley

James Lee Stanley is an American folk singer-songwriter.-Biography:Stanley was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania of Italian, German, Cherokee Indian, Scotch/Irish and English heritage. He said in a 2002 interview that as a child he was "shy, bright, blessed ... strict father gentle mother ......

, Micky Dolenz

Micky Dolenz

George Michael "Micky" Dolenz, Jr. is an American actor, musician, television director, radio personality and theater director, best known as a member of the 1960s made-for-television band The Monkees.-Biography:...

, Michael Nesmith

Michael Nesmith

Robert Michael Nesmith is an American musician, songwriter, actor, producer, novelist, businessman, and philanthropist, best known as a member of the musical group The Monkees and star of the TV series of the same name...

, Mackenzie Phillips

Mackenzie Phillips

Mackenzie Phillips is an American actress and singer best known for her roles in American Graffiti and as rebellious teenager Julie Cooper Horvath on the sitcom One Day at a Time...

, and Timothy B. Schmidt.

Reception

Stranger Things Have Happened received generally high praise from critics. Bruce Eder of AllMusic wrote "No one's going to believe it, but this is a good album, from Peter Tork no less. Most of the songs are sung with passion and the voice is much better than it was on, say, 'Shades of Gray' 28 years earlier. What's more, Tork reveals himself as a solid rocker, starting from a folk idiom but working with lots of wattage on the instruments and no trace of wimpy singer/songwriter affectation in the playing. A few notable friends are aboard in addition to his direct collaborator and co-producer, James Lee Stanley—Mickey Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, Mackenzie Phillips, and Timothy B. Schmit among them. There are songs drawn from across the spectrum of Tork's career, including a gorgeous, folk-style cover of 'Take a Giant Step' that made this reviewer smile so emphatically it was mixed with tears of joy; the exquisitely funny 'Milkshake', a delightfully wry account of life on the road that includes Nesmith and Dolenz and some of the most charmingly silly choruses ever heard in a legitimate rock song; 'MGB-GT', a very personal car song that may be particularly potent to middle-aged survivors of the 1960s; and 'Higher and Higher', a folk/gospel song on which Tork mostly plays acoustic banjo, and which is so beguiling that one wishes he'd do an entire album in that idiom, style, and sound. Not every song here is quite that good, and three of the numbers probably could have been dispensed with, but eight out of 11 isn't bad.