Bobby Hart, the prolific songwriter-producer who, with partner Tommy Boyce, helped shape the Monkees’ sound and pen many of their enduring songs, has died. He was 86.

Hart’s passing occurred at his Los Angeles home, his friend and co-author Glenn Ballantyne confirmed. Friends say his health declined after a hip fracture last year.

In the mid-1960s Boyce and Hart became central figures in the Monkees’ rise, hired by Don Kirshner to supply material for the television-formed quartet. The duo wrote the show’s instantly recognizable theme — with its opening line “Here we come, walkin’ down the street” — and the band’s first No. 1 single, “Last Train to Clarksville.” Their playing and production, often featuring their own session ensemble the Candy Store Prophets, appear on multiple tracks of the Monkees’ million-selling debut.

Beyond hits like “I’m Not Your Steppin’ Stone” and the reflective “I Wanna Be Free,” Boyce and Hart wrote charting singles such as “Valleri” and composed the theme to the daytime soap Days of Our Lives. Their catalog has been covered across genres — from Dean Martin to the Sex Pistols — underscoring the broad reach of their songwriting.

Micky Dolenz, writing in the foreword to Hart’s 2015 memoir Psychedelic Bubblegum, credited Boyce and Hart not only for composing many of the Monkees’ signature songs but also for forging the distinctive sound listeners associate with the group.

After the pair’s early success, they pursued projects under their own names, releasing albums such as Test Patterns and I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonite, and making television appearances on programs including I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched. Both men were politically engaged as well — they campaigned for Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 and later wrote the spirited “L.U.V. (Let Us Vote)” in support of the 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 in 1971.

In subsequent decades Hart continued to write and produce with other collaborators. He co-wrote “Over You” with Austin Roberts — an Oscar-nominated song performed by Betty Buckley in the film Tender Mercies — and contributed material for acts including the Partridge Family and New Edition. In the 1970s he toured with Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones; the group released the album Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart, and the Monkees’ renewed popularity in the 1980s brought the partners fresh attention.

Tommy Boyce died in 1994. The pair’s collaboration and legacy were later chronicled in the 2014 documentary The Guys Who Wrote ‘Em. Hart married twice, most recently to singer Mary Ann Hart, and is survived by two children from his first marriage.

Born Robert Luke Harshman in Phoenix, Arizona, Hart was the son of a minister. He taught himself piano, guitar and the Hammond B-3 organ while still young, and even built a small amateur radio setup as a teen. After high school and service in the Army reserves he moved to Los Angeles in the late 1950s to pursue a career in music. Early stops included touring with Teddy Randazzo and the Dazzlers; he co-wrote “Hurt So Bad,” later a hit for Little Anthony and the Imperials and covered by Linda Ronstadt.

Hart’s career spanned songwriting, production and performance, and his work — especially the partnership with Boyce — left an indelible mark on 1960s pop and beyond.

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