The Monkees were an American pop rock band, formed in Los Angeles in the mid-1960s, whose lineup consisted of Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork. One of the most commercially successful bands of the late 1960s, the group was conceived in 1965 by television producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider for the NBC situation comedy series of the same name. Music credited to the band was released on LP, as well as being included in the show, which aired from 1966 to 1968.
At first, the band members' musical contributions were primarily limited to lead vocals and the occasional composition; the remainder was composed by professional songwriters and performed by session musicians such as the Wrecking Crew, under the music supervision of Don Kirshner and with production by figures including Boyce and Hart, Jack Keller, and Jeff Barry. From 1966 to 1967, the group enjoyed a consecutive run of four chart-topping albums: The Monkees, More of the Monkees, Headquarters, and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.. During this period, they also achieved three number-one singles: "Last Train to Clarksville", "I'm a Believer", and "Daydream Believer".
The members had increasingly desired greater control over the creation of their music and, following a brief power struggle, gained full control over their recordings in 1967. Starting with Headquarters, they worked with producer Chip Douglas and mostly performed as a group; however, by the recording of The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees, each member was pursuing his own interests under the Monkees' name. In 1968, they starred as themselves in the motion picture Head, planned as the antithesis of the television show, but received with an underwhelming critical and commercial reception. With much of the public under the misconception that the band members still did not play their own instruments—followed by the cancellation of television series and waning popularity overall—the group broke up in the early 1970s.
A revival of interest in the television show came in 1986, leading to intermittent reunions from then until 2011, including reunion tours, a major-network television special, and new studio albums. After the deaths of Jones in 2012 and Tork in 2019, Dolenz and Nesmith undertook a farewell tour in 2021. This tour concluded shortly before Nesmith's death later that year, leaving Dolenz as the sole surviving member.
Contents
History
Conception and casting
The Monkees were formed in the mid-1960s in Los Angeles.
Davy Jones has said: "The name hadn't been thought of yet. There was The Beatles, The Animals, The Byrds, The Turtles — so we started thinking of animal names ... Suddenly, we knew we had it – The Monkees' [spelled] wrong, like Beatles, Byrds".
Aspiring filmmaker Bob Rafelson developed the initial idea for The Monkees in 1962 and tried selling it to Revue Productions, the television division of Universal Pictures, but was unsuccessful. In May 1964, while working at Screen Gems, Rafelson teamed up with Bert Schneider, whose father, Abraham Schneider, headed the Colpix Records and Screen Gems Television units of Columbia Pictures. Rafelson and Schneider ultimately formed Raybert Productions. The Beatles' films A Hard Day's Night and Help! inspired Rafelson and Schneider to revive Rafelson's idea for The Monkees. As Raybert Productions, they sold the show to Screen Gems Television in April 1965.
Rafelson and Schneider's original idea was to cast an existing New York folk rock group, the Lovin' Spoonful, who were not widely known at the time. After those plans fell through, Rafelson and Schneider focused on Davy Jones. In September 1964, Jones had signed to a long-term contract to appear in TV programs for Screen Gems, to make feature films for Columbia Pictures and to record music for the Colpix label. His involvement with The Monkees was publicly announced on July 14, 1965. Jones had previously starred as the Artful Dodger in the Broadway theater show Oliver!. For this work he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical in 1963.
In September 1965, Daily Variety and The Hollywood Reporter ran advertisements to cast the remainder of the band/cast members for the TV show. The advertisements each read as follows:
Madness!! Auditions. Folk & Roll Musicians-Singers for acting roles in new TV series. Running parts for 4 insane boys, age 17–21. Want spirited Ben Frank's-types. Have courage to work. Must come down for interview.
Out of 437 applicants, the other three chosen for the cast of the show were Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork, and Micky Dolenz.
Early years
During the casting process, Don Kirshner, Screen Gems' head of music, was contacted to secure music for The Monkees pilot. Kirshner's Brill Building firm Aldon Music had an extensive portfolio of songwriters, many in need of work after the British Invasion had reorganized the American music scene; while several Aldon writers contributed songs to the Monkees during their existence, the bulk of the songwriting for the group fell upon Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, two songwriters who were only beginning to break through to success at the time. Boyce and Hart contributed four demo recordings for the pilot. NBC ordered 32 episodes of The Monkees on January 17, 1966.
When The Monkees was picked up as a series, development of the musical side of the project accelerated. Columbia–Screen Gems and RCA Victor entered into a joint venture called Colgems Records; the primary purpose of the venture was to distribute Monkees records. Raybert set up a rehearsal space and rented instruments for the group to practice playing in April 1966, but it quickly became apparent they would not be in shape in time for the series debut. The producers called upon Kirshner to recruit a producer for the Monkees' sessions.
Kirshner called on Snuff Garrett, composer of several hits by Gary Lewis & the Playboys, to produce the initial musical cuts for the show. Garrett, upon meeting the four Monkees in June 1966, decided that Jones would sing lead, a choice that was unpopular with the group. This cool reception led Kirshner to drop Garrett and buy out his contract.
Kirshner next allowed Nesmith to produce sessions, provided he did not play on any tracks he produced. Nesmith did, however, start using the other Monkees in his sessions; he especially used Tork as a guitarist. Kirshner came back to the enthusiastic Boyce and Hart to be the regular producers, but he brought in one of his top East Coast associates, Jack Keller, to lend some production experience to the sessions. Boyce and Hart quickly realized that when together, the four actors fooled around and tried to crack each other up. Because of this, the producers often brought in each singer individually.
The Monkees' debut and second albums were meant to be a soundtrack to the first season of the TV show, to cash in on the audience. In the 2006 Rhino Deluxe Edition re-issue of their second album, More of the Monkees, Nesmith stated that he was angered by the release of the first album because it portrayed the band as an actual rock-and-roll band and gave no credit to the other musicians involved in the project.
Independence
In early 1967, controversy concerning the Monkees' studio abilities arose. Dolenz told a reporter that the Wrecking Crew provided the backing tracks for the first two Monkees albums, and that his position as drummer was simply because a Monkee had to learn to play the drums, and he only knew the guitar. In the January 28, 1967, issue of Saturday Evening Post an article quoted Nesmith railing against the music creation process. "Do you know how debilitating it is to sit up and have to duplicate somebody else's records?" he asked. "Tell the world we don't record our own music."
The band members were displeased that the music publishing company would not allow them to play their own instruments on their records or to use more of their own material. These complaints intensified when Kirshner moved recording from California to New York, leaving the band out of the musical process entirely until they were called upon to add their vocals to the completed tracks. Nesmith, when asked about the situation by Rolling Stone magazine, said, "The [TV show's] producers [in Hollywood] backed us and David went along. None of us could have fought the battles we did [with the music publishers] without the explicit support of the show's producers".
On January 16, 1967, the Monkees held their first recording session as a fully functioning, self-contained band. The band recorded an early version of Nesmith's self-composed top 40 hit single "The Girl I Knew Somewhere", along with "All of Your Toys" and "She's So Far Out, She's In".
Also in January, Kirshner released the band's second album of songs that used session musicians, More of the Monkees, without the band's knowledge. The Monkees were annoyed at not having even been told of the release in advance, at having their opinions on the track selection ignored, and at Kirshner's self-congratulatory liner notes. The band was also displeased because of the cover photo, which was a composite of photographs taken for a J.C. Penney clothing advertisement. Indeed, the Monkees were not even given a copy of the album; they had to buy it from a record store.
The climax of the conflict between Kirshner and the band was an intense argument among Nesmith, Kirshner and Colgems lawyer Herb Moelis, which took place at the Beverly Hills Hotel in January 1967. Kirshner had presented the group with royalty checks and gold records. Nesmith had responded with an ultimatum, demanding a change in the way the Monkees' music was chosen and recorded. Moelis reminded Nesmith that he was under contract. The confrontation ended with Nesmith punching a hole in a wall and saying, "That could have been your face!" However, each of the band members, including Nesmith, accepted the $250,000 royalty checks.
Later years and separation
Tensions within the group were increasing. Tork, citing exhaustion, quit the band by buying out the last four years of his Monkees contract at $150,000 per year. Tork departed shortly after the band's September–October Far East tour in December 1968 and after the band completed work on their 1969 NBC television special, 33⅓ Revolutions Per Monkee.
In February 1969, the Monkees' seventh album, Instant Replay, without Tork's involvement beyond playing guitar on "I Won't Be the Same Without Her", was released, which reached No. 32 on the charts, and No. 45 in Canada. The single from the album was "Tear Drop City", which peaked at No. 56 on the U.S. Billboard chart, No. 27 on the Canadian chart, and No. 34 on the Australian chart. Dolenz contributed the biggest and longest Monkees' production, "Shorty Blackwell", a song celebrating his cat. Dolenz called it his "feeble attempt at something to do with Sgt. Pepper." In April 1969, the single "Someday Man" b/w "Listen to the Band" was released, which had the unique distinction of the B-side, a Nesmith-composed country-rock song, charting higher (No. 63) than the Jones-sung A-side (No. 81). In Canada, "Someday Man" was No. 74 and "Listen to the Band" reached No. 53.
The final album with Nesmith from the Monkees' original incarnation was their eighth album, The Monkees Present, released in October 1969, which peaked at No. 100 on the Billboard charts. It included the Nesmith composed country-rock singles "Listen to the Band" and "Good Clean Fun" (released in September 1969)(No. 80 Canada). Other notable songs include the Dolenz composition "Little Girl", which featured Louie Shelton on electric guitar joining Dolenz on acoustic guitar.
In the summer of 1969, the three remaining Monkees embarked on a tour with the backing of the soul band Sam and the Goodtimers. Concerts for this tour were longer sets than their earlier performances tours, with many shows running over two hours. Although the tour was met with some positive critical reception (Billboard in particular praised it), other critics were not favorable of the mixing of the Monkees' pop music with the Goodtimers' R&B approach. Toward the end of the tour, some dates were canceled due to poor ticket sales. The tour failed to re-establish the band commercially, with no single entering the Top 40 in 1969. Dolenz remarked that the tour "was like kicking a dead horse. The phenomenon had peaked".
Reunions and revivals
The Monkees experienced a significant resurgence in critical and commercial popularity during the mid-1980s. This revival was catalyzed by a marathon of their original television series, titled "Pleasant Valley Sunday", broadcast on MTV on February 23, 1986. Simultaneously, Nickelodeon began daily reruns of the show, reintroducing the band to a new generation. These promotional efforts sparked a resurgence of "Monkeemania", leading to a successful concert tour. The initial spark of the reunion occurred in February and March 1986, when Peter Tork and Davy Jones performed together in Australia. In May 1986, Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, and Peter Tork announced their "20th Anniversary Tour", which began in North America in June. The tour's success prompted additional performances in Australia, Europe, and North America, culminating in September 1989.
The Monkees' original albums saw renewed sales. Furthermore, the band released a new greatest hits compilation that achieved platinum certification. The success of the band during this period led to the release of their first single since 1971, "That Was Then, This Is Now". The track reached No. 20 on Billboard magazine's charts. The band's follow-up album, Pool It!, was released in 1987. During the 1980s revival, Nesmith remained largely absent. He did not contribute to any of the Monkees' studio recordings during this period.
The Monkees' eleventh album Justus was released in 1996. It was the first album since 1968 on which all four original members performed and produced, and it would be the last studio album in which all four Monkees directly participated (Jones's death would necessitate the use of archival recordings on later albums). Justus was produced by the Monkees, and all of its songs were written by one or two of the four Monkees. The album was recorded using only the four Monkees for all instruments and vocals, which was the inspiration for the album title and spelling (Justus = Just Us).
The trio of Dolenz, Jones, and Tork reunited again for a successful 30th anniversary tour of American amphitheaters in 1996. Nesmith joined them onstage in Los Angeles to promote the new songs from Justus. For the first time since the brief 1986 reunion, Nesmith returned to the concert stage for a tour of the United Kingdom in 1997, highlighted by two sold-out concerts at Wembley Arena in Wembley Park, London. In 1967, the Monkees had been the first group to headline on their own at the Empire Pool, as the Arena was then called. This was followed by a 1997 US tour featuring Tork, Jones, and Dolenz.
Micky Dolenz
In early 2022, Dolenz announced that he would embark on a series of April 2022 concert dates called the "Micky Dolenz Celebrates the Monkees 2022 Tour".
Impact and legacy
The Monkees were selected specifically to appeal to the youth market as American television's response to the Beatles. Andrew Sandoval wrote the following in The Hollywood Reporter:
[The Monkees] pioneered the music video format and paved the way for every boy band that followed in their wake, from New Kids on the Block to 'N Sync to the Jonas Brothers, while Davy set the stage for future teen idols David Cassidy and Justin Bieber. As pop stars go, you would be hard pressed to find a successful artist who didn't take a page from the Monkees' playbook, even generations later. Monkee money also enabled Rafelson and Schneider to finance Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces, which made Jack Nicholson a star. In fact, the Monkees series was the opening salvo in a revolution that brought on the New Hollywood cinema, an influence rarely acknowledged but no less impactful.
The Chicago Tribune interviewed Davy Jones, who said, "We touched a lot of musicians, you know. I can't tell you the amount of people that have come up and said, 'I wouldn't have been a musician if it hadn't been for the Monkees.' It baffles me even now".
The Monkees found unlikely fans among musicians of the punk rock period of the mid-1970s. Many of these punk performers had grown up on TV reruns of the series, and sympathized with the anti-industry, anti-establishment trend of their career. Sex Pistols and Minor Threat both recorded versions of "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" and it was often played live by Toy Love. Japanese new wave pop group the Plastics recorded a synthesizer and drum-machine version of "Last Train to Clarksville" for their 1979 album Welcome Back.
Glenn A. Baker, author of Monkeemania: The True Story of the Monkees, described the Monkees as "rock's first great embarrassment" in 1986:
Like an illegitimate child in a respectable family, the Monkees are destined to be regarded forever as rock's first great embarrassment; misunderstood and maligned like a mongrel at a ritzy dog show, or a test tube baby at the Vatican... The fact was ignored that session players were being heavily employed by the Beach Boys, the Beatles, the Mamas and the Papas, the Byrds and other titans of the age. However, what could not be ignored, as rock disdained its pubescent past, was a group of middle-aged Hollywood businessmen had actually assembled their concept of a profitable rock group and foisted it upon the world. What mattered was that the Monkees had success handed to them on a silver plate.
In popular culture
The Criterion Collection, which has a stated goal to release "a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films, [and] has been dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements" recognized the Monkees' film Head as meeting their criteria when they fully restored and released it on DVD and Blu-ray in 2010. They stated that Head was "way, way ahead of its time" and "arguably the most authentically psychedelic film made in 1960s Hollywood.” Criterion said that Head “has since been reclaimed as one of the great cult objects of its era."
In the book Hey, Hey We're The Monkees, Rafelson wrote that, with Head, he explored unprecedented cinematic techniques, including filming actors underwater, the use of polarization, and inventing "double-matte experiences". "When it was shown in France, the head of the Cinematheque overly praised the movie as a cinematic masterpiece, and from that point on, this movie began to acquire an underground reputation."
In 2010, Nick Vernier Band created a digital "Monkees reunion" through the release of Mister Bob (featuring the Monkees), a new song produced under license from Rhino Entertainment, containing vocal samples from the band's recording "Zilch".
The contract bridge convention known as either Last Train or Last Train to Clarksville was so named by its inventor, Jeff Meckstroth, after the Monkees' song.
A comic book series, The Monkees, was published in the United States by Dell Comics, which ran for 17 issues from 1967 to 1969.
In 2000, VH-1 produced the television biopic Daydream Believers: The Monkees' Story.
A stage musical opened in the UK at the Manchester Opera House on Friday March 30, 2012, and was dedicated to Davy Jones (the Jones family attended the official opening on April 3). The production is a Jukebox musical and starred Stephen Kirwan, Ben Evans, Tom Parsons and Oliver Savile as actors playing the parts of the Monkees (respectively Dolenz, Jones, Nesmith, Tork) who are hired by an unscrupulous businessman to go on a world tour pretending to be the real band. The show includes 18 Monkees songs plus numbers by other 60s artists. It ran in Manchester as part of the "Manchester Gets it First" program until April 14, 2012, before a UK tour. Following its Manchester run, the show appeared in the Glasgow King's Theatre and the Sunderland Empire Theatre.
Awards and achievements
Notable achievements
Gave the Jimi Hendrix Experience their first U.S. concert tour exposure as an opening act in July 1967.
Inspired Gene Roddenberry to introduce the character of Chekov in his Star Trek TV series in response to the popularity of Davy Jones, complete with hairstyle and appearance mimicking that of Jones.
Inducted into America's Pop Music Hall of Fame in 2014.
Honored by the Music Business Association (Music Biz) with an Outstanding Achievement Award celebrating the band's 50th anniversary on May 16, 2016.
Inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2007.
Controversies
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Various magazines and news outlets, such as Time, NPR, Goldmine, Yahoo! Music and MSNBC have argued that the Monkees belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 1992, Davy Jones told People that he knew that the Monkees would never make it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In June 2007, Peter Tork complained to the New York Post that Jann Wenner had "blackballed" the Monkees from being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Tork contended that Wenner held a grudge against the Monkees because the band members did not always write their own songs or play their own instruments during their early years.
Members
Micky Dolenz – lead and backing vocals, rhythm guitar, drums, percussion, keyboards (1966–1971, 1976, 1986–1989, 1996–1997, 2001–2002, 2011–2021)
Davy Jones – lead and backing vocals, percussion, drums, rhythm guitar, bass (1966–1971, 1976, 1986–1989, 1996–1997, 2001–2002, 2011–2012; died 2012)
Michael Nesmith – lead and rhythm guitars, keyboards, backing and lead vocals (1966–1970, 1986, 1989, 1996–1997, 2012–2014, 2016, 2018–2021; died 2021)
Peter Tork – bass, rhythm and lead guitars, keyboards, banjo, backing and occasional lead vocals (1966–1968, 1976, 1986–1989, 1996–1997, 2001, 2011–2018; died 2019)
Discography
The Monkees (1966)
More of the Monkees (1967)
Headquarters (1967)
Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. (1967)
The Birds, the Bees & the Monkees (1968)
Head (1968)
Instant Replay (1969)
The Monkees Present (1969)
Changes (1970)
Pool It! (1987)
Justus (1996)
Good Times! (2016)
Christmas Party (2018)