Former teen idol Davy Jones, who performs at Tecumseh Center for the Arts at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, fully acknowledges that when he and Mickey Dolenz, Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork starred in the television show “The Monkees” from 1966-68, they bypassed the typical hoops that most music acts had to jump through.

“Because we were on TV every week, we didn’t have to be on ‘American Bandstand,’ we didn’t have to be on the cover of LIFE magazine and Newsweek,” said Jones during a recent phone interview. “Disc jockeys on the radio were taping the songs we sang on ‘The Monkees’ on Monday nights from the television, and on Tuesday they were playing them on the radio. Songs that weren’t even released yet. That’s how ‘Valleri’ became a hit just like that.”

Jones noted that although each episode featured 3 or 4 songs, producers would often include the same song in consecutive episodes in order to cash in on its popularity. Even so, Jones admits that he and the other Monkees had no sense of which songs (written by Neil Diamond and Carole King, among others) might catch on with the public.

After filming of the TV show concluded on a given day, songwriter/music producer Chip Douglas “was in the studio, and he’d say, who wants to go in the studio tonight?” said Jones. “And more often than not, Mickey and I’d say, ‘I’ll go. I’ll go.’ … One time, Chip said, ‘Well, what do you think about this (song)?’ and I said, ‘For what? “Daydream Believer”? Yeah, throw that one out.’ And he said, ‘No, for the single.’ ‘Oh, yeah. Sure.’ So, no, I didn’t really know.”

Nor did he have any idea that the song would be the staple of his performing career. For despite Jones’ early success on stage — including a 1963 Tony Award nomination for his portrayal of the Artful Dodger in the Broadway production of “Oliver!” — his casting as the Monkees’ starry-eyed, girl-crazy, half-pint singer came to define him.

“It’s a familiarity that people have, and it’s all because of the connection with the Monkees,” said Jones. “Unabashed devotion. It just gave so much happiness to people. And the more I go through my life, the more I’ve realized, OK, we’re not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but who cares? It’s not about that. It’s about how you present yourself and what you have to offer as time goes by.”

Davy Jones performing "I'm A Believer" last fall:

Jones has a lot to offer his fans lately: a new album called “She” (“It’s got songs my father would have sung to my mother,” Jones said, including “Fly Me to the Moon,” “Special Angel,” and “Are You Lonesome Tonight?”); in April, an Ultimate Idols Cruise with Jones, Ron Dante from The Archies, Flamenco Express, Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods, a Beatles tribute band, and “Brady Bunch” star Barry Williams (so passengers can ask all about Jones’ classic appearance on the iconic sitcom); a blog; and a memorabilia museum and theater space he’s developing in Pennsylvania, near his own property, where he owns and rides horses.

Indeed, Jones and his new wife, Telemundo personality Jessica Pacheco, have 11 horses; so in addition to family (Jones has 4 daughters, including singer/songwriter Annabel Jones of the music group Lady and the Lost Boys) and performing, they are Jones’ passion.

Jones first worked with horses and trained to be a jockey at age 14, after his mother’s death from emphysema. (These days, 4 of his 11 horses are race horses.) But while pursuing that path, someone recognized his potential as a musical theater performer and cast him in the West End production of “Oliver!”

This eventually brought him to America, where, on one fateful night in 1964, he appeared with the Broadway cast from “Oliver!” on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” on the same night that the Beatles made their landmark appearance.

“I saw what was going on there, and that’s where my career changed,” said Jones. “When I decided, ‘I need to go into the (recording) studio.’ Because there’s all these girls here.”

Monkees reunions have come and gone since then, of course, and at 64, Jones’ career has spanned 50 years. But even so, he still gets a charge out of performing.

“People don’t go (to my shows) to criticize,” said Jones. “And I win them over in the end. I don’t care if a woman’s dragged her husband along, and made him go — by the time I’m finished, I’ve got him going, too. Because that’s what my job is: to entertain.”

Jenn McKee is the entertainment digital journalist for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at jennmckee@annarbor.com or 734-623-2546, and follow her on Twitter @jennmckee.