The Monkees

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The Monkees were an immensely successful, particularly in 1967 (when they sold 35 million records), of actors and musicians who played a rock group on the television show The Monkees (1966–1968) and produced albums. Three were American, while one (David "Davy" Jones) was British. On the show they drove around in a muscle car (Pontiac GTO), which was called the MonkeeMobile. When it was revealed that some dubbing was used for their instrumental music,^[1] some critics turned against it.

Their Last Train to Clarksville became a top hit before the show aired, and once the show aired their album soared to the top of the charts selling more 3 million albums in merely 90 days. They benefited from superb songwriting, and the instrumental music was played by others. I'm a Believer, written by the then-obscure but future megastar Neil Diamond, became an immediate spectacular hit - #1 song overall in 1967.

A quartet, their television show last merely two seasons (58 episodes),^[2] but their songs influenced a generation. The band broke up in 1970 but then reunited many times afterwards, usually without all four members performing together at the same time.

Micky Dolenz, the last surviving member of the band, did the vocals on the popular Last Train to Clarksville, I'm a Believer, and Pleasant Valley Sunday songs. Band member Michael Nesmith wrote the song "Different Drum" but The Monkees' producer Don Kirshner blocked the band from playing their original material on their television show.^[3] The Monkees did ultimately perform these songs written by Nesmith: Listen To The Band, Papa Gene's Blues, Mary, Mary, and You Just May Be The One. A tense meeting at The Beverly Hills Hotel between the group and Kirshner, his attorney, and a few others culminated with band member Michael Nesmith slamming his fist into the wall in defiant response to Kirshner's demand that they record Sugar, Sugar when the band wanted to record its own material. Subsequently the band parted ways with Kirshner.^[4]

The television show has been described as an influential precursor to MTV (started 13 years later, in 1981), and the show had some initial popularity in syndication.

Politically Motivated Cancellation of Television Show[edit]

The cancellation of "The Monkees" television show after two successful seasons was probably political. Based on the television show the American-dominated, upbeat band was destroying the liberal-favored, depression-inducing druggie Beatles.

The television show was successful, and yet prematurely cancelled. Why? One unlikely explanation is that bigwigs disliked how it stopped using canned laughter, because the show was so genuinely funny.^[5] More likely the unjustified cancellation was due to how The Monkees knocked the liberal-preferred Beatles out of their top ranking in record sales.

20th Reunion tour[edit]

In 1986, three of the four Monkees did a 20th year reunion tour that was one of the highest grossing tours in music that year. The fourth Monkee, Michael Nesmith, was supportive but cited other commitments and only occasionally joined the events while praising them.^[6]

MTV ran a marathon of the television episodes in early 1986. "We've never received such a volume of mail," MTV's general manager Tom Freston described to Rolling Stone magazine in September of that year.^[6] The Monkees continues to air in syndicated reruns, most recently on MeTV.

30th Reunion tour[edit]

Though less successful than the 20th Reunion tour, the 30th Anniversary tour in 1996 played to many audiences with success and also appeared on Jay Leno's Tonight Show.^[7] Again it was three members of the quartet without Nesmith.

Farewell Tour[edit]

In September 2021, Michael Nesmith and Micky Dolenz performed a farewell tour after 55 years of the Monkees.^[8] Davy Jones (1945-2012) and Peter Tork (1942-2019) had already passed away at the time of the tour. Michael Nesmith passed away in December 2021 of natural causes,^[9] leaving Micky Dolenz as the last surviving Monkee.

Songwriters[edit]

The songwriter for the popular "Daydream Believer" song by the Monkees was John Stewart.^[10] Superb songwriters for tunes The Monkees played on their show included Carole King, Neil Diamond, Harry Nilsson, and Boyce & Hart. Neil Diamond wrote their love song I'm a Believer, which spent 7 weeks at #1 starting at the end of 1966, making it the top single of the year for 1967. Micky Dolenz was lead vocals on that song.

References[edit]