Peter Tork, Headquarters sessions, 1967.
Spotlight on: “Zilch” (1967) —
“I know that it started from Micky hearing an announcement at an airport: ‘Mr. Dobalena, Mr. Bob Dobalena.’ That got that going, then I think Mike kind of suggested a few things and Peter had an idea: ‘Let’s do a little round with everybody saying something different and say “Zilch” at the end.’ It just kind of became another little bit in there, you know?” - Chip Douglas, 2007 Headquarters liner notes
“We had enough separation so that we weren’t leaking too badly into each other’s mics and we just heard each other on the earphones. There were the two sections: we did the one slow and we did the fast one. We did it a while and then assembled the slow and the fast one and the laughter.” - Peter Tork on the Zilch session, 2007 Headquarters liner notes
“Mistadobalina” by Del tha Funkee Homosapien (1991):
“While gangsta rap was dominating hip-hop in the early Nineties, Del [tha Funkee Homosapien]— a cousin of Ice Cube — found inspiration from quirkier sources, like Sixties bubblegum pop groups. A big fan of the Monkees’ TV show, he wrote this song in response to a mostly spoken-word bit by the group titled ‘Zilch,’ which began with Peter Tork repeating the name ‘Mr. Bob Dobalina.’ ‘I just kind of conceptualized who Mr. Dobalina would be,’ Del said, ‘which is basically somebody who thinks he know what hip, he think he cool, but he’s really right off. Like he ain’t right on — he right off.’” - Rolling Stone, June 12, 2012