Britain first boy band The Monkees loses a member

Davy Jones, “the cute one” among TV’s “The Monkees,” died of a heart attack Wednesday in Florida. He was 66.

Jones who trained as a racehorse jockey turned to acting and then became a singer when he joined the Monkees in 1965 — with Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork and Mike Nesmith. Before the emmergence of such boy bands as Westlife, Boyzone, Blue and JLS, The Monkees were the original British idols.

The Monkees sold more than 50 million records, and in 1967 outsold both the Beatles, after whom they were modeled, and the Rolling Stones. Jones himself was so omnipresent that another emerging pop star, born David Jones, had to change his name to David Bowie just to avoid confusion.

 Davy Jones

The Monkees in their hay days