<P> Although "Clarksville" is in the song title, the video accompanying the song on the Monkees' TV show showed a sign pointing to "Clarkesville". </P> <P> Hart got the idea for the lyrics when he turned on the radio and heard the end of The Beatles' "Paperback Writer". He thought Paul McCartney was singing "Take the last train", and decided to use the line when he found out McCartney was actually singing "Paperback Writer". Hart knew that The Monkees TV series was being pitched as a music / comedy series in the spirit of The Beatles movie A Hard Day's Night, so he was hoping that by emulating The Beatles, this song might lead to a successful single, which it did . To help ensure that, he decided to include a distinctive guitar riff and wrote in the "Oh No - No - No, Oh No - No - No" lyrics as a response to The Beatles' famous "Yeah Yeah Yeah". </P> <P> Although LA's "Wrecking Crew" provided the instrumental backing for many of the early Monkees' songs, Boyce and Hart's band Candy Store Prophets did the session work for this song . The lead guitar part was written and played by Hollywood session musician Louie Shelton who would eventually become a mainstay on Monkees recordings . </P> <Table> <Tr> <Td> <H3> Weekly charts (edit) </H3> <Table> <Tr> <Th> Chart (1966--1967) </Th> <Th> Peak position </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Australia Go - Set </Td> <Td> 14 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Ireland (IRMA) </Td> <Td> 5 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> New Zealand (Listener) </Td> <Td> 6 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> U.S. Billboard Hot 100 </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Table> <Tr> <Th> Chart (1966) </Th> <Th> Peak position </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Canada RPM Magazine </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Table> <Tr> <Th> Chart (1967) </Th> <Th> Peak position </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> UK Singles Chart </Td> <Td> 23 </Td> </Tr> </Table> <P> </P> </Td> <Td> <H3> Year - end charts (edit) </H3> <Table> <Tr> <Th> Chart (1966) </Th> <Th> Rank </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> U.S. Billboard Hot 100 </Td> <Td> 6 </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Table> <Tr> <Th> Chart (1967) </Th> <Th> Rank </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Canada </Td> <Td> 12 </Td> </Tr> </Table> <P> </P> </Td> </Tr> </Table>

Who played lead guitar on last train to clarksville