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88-486: Sidney Thomas "Tommy" Boyce (September 29, 1939 – November 23, 1994) and Bobby Hart (born Robert Luke Harshman ; February 18, 1939) were an American duo of singer-songwriters. In addition to three top-40 hits as artists, the duo is well known for its songwriting for The Monkees . Hart's father was a church minister and he himself served in the Army after leaving high school. Upon discharge, he travelled to Los Angeles seeking

176-516: A I major to a VI minor—those kinds of things. So it was a little kind of a new wave country song. It didn't sound like the country songs of the time, which was Buck Owens." Their next single, "Daydream Believer" (with a piano intro written by Tork), shot to No. 1 on the charts, letting the Monkees hold the No. 1 position in the singles chart and the album chart with Pisces simultaneously. "Daydream Believer" used

264-438: A band in the sitcom. Music credited to the Monkees appeared in the sitcom and was released on LPs and singles beginning in 1966, and the sitcom aired from 1966 to 1968. At first, the band members' musical contributions were primarily limited to lead vocals and the occasional composition, with the remaining music provided by professional songwriters and studio musicians. Though this arrangement yielded multiple hit albums and singles,

352-609: A breakthrough with a song recorded by Chubby Checker , "Lazy Elsie Molly", in 1964. They went on to write hits for Jay & the Americans (" Come a Little Bit Closer "), Paul Revere & the Raiders (" (I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone "), and The Leaves ("Words"). The latter two songs provided the Monkees with hit B-sides in 1967. The duo also wrote the theme song of the daytime soap Days of Our Lives . At one point in this period, Hart also co-wrote " Hurt So Bad " for Little Anthony &

440-557: A career as a singer. Boyce was separately pursuing a career as a songwriter. After being rejected numerous times, Boyce took his father's suggestion to write a song called " Be My Guest " for rock and roll star Fats Domino . He waited six hours at Domino's hotel room to present him with the demo, and got Domino to promise to listen to the song. The song hit No. 8 in the US and No. 11 in the UK, becoming Domino's biggest hit there in several years, and sold over

528-475: A decade before. Legally prohibited from using the Monkees name, they called themselves Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart . The group toured amusement parks and other venues throughout America , Japan and other locations from July 4, 1975, to early 1977, also becoming the first American band to play in Thailand . Signed to Capitol Records by Al Coury , the group released an album of new material in 1976. (A live album

616-490: A diverse mixture of musical style influences, including country-rock, folk-rock, psychedelic rock, soul/R&B, guitar rock, Broadway and English music hall sensibilities. At the height of their fame in 1967, they also suffered from a media backlash. Nesmith states in the 2007 Rhino reissue of Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. , "Everybody in the press and in the hippie movement had got us into their target window as being illegitimate and not worthy of consideration as

704-544: A hole in a wall and saying, "That could have been your face!" However, each of the members, including Nesmith, accepted the $ 250,000 royalty checks (equivalent to approximately $ 2,300,000 in today's funds). Soon after, Colgems and the Monkees reached an agreement not to release material directly created by the group together with unrelated Kirshner-produced material. Kirshner immediately violated this agreement in early February 1967, when he released " A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You ", composed and written by Neil Diamond , as

792-523: 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 &

880-524: A million copies. Boyce also found success as the co-writer, with Curtis Lee , of Lee's 1961 hits " Pretty Little Angel Eyes " and " Under the Moon of Love ". Boyce met Hart in 1959, and the following year played guitar on Hart's single "Girl in the Window", which flopped, but marked the first time he used the name Bobby Hart, since his manager shortened his surname from Harshman to fit the label. Their partnership made

968-407: A musical force [or] certainly any kind of cultural force. We were under siege; wherever we went there was such resentment for us. We were constantly mocked and humiliated by the press. We were really gettin' beat up pretty good. We all knew what was going on inside. Kirshner had been purged. We'd gone to try to make Headquarters and found out that it was only marginally okay and that our better move

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1056-525: A musician since early 1963 and had been recording and releasing music under various names, including Michael Blessing and "Mike & John & Bill", and he had studied drama in college. Of the final three, Nesmith was the only one who actually saw the ad in Daily Variety and The Hollywood Reporter . Tork, the last to be chosen, had been working the Greenwich Village scene as a musician and had shared

1144-586: A single with an early version of "She Hangs Out", a song recorded in New York with Davy Jones's vocals, as the B-side. (This single was only released in Canada and was withdrawn after a couple of weeks. ) He was consequently dismissed from the project. Propelled by the band's second single, "I'm a Believer" b/w "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone", More of the Monkees became the band's biggest-selling LP. The album spent 70 weeks on

1232-476: A song from the film's composer, Ken Thorne. The album had a mylar cover, to give it a mirror-like appearance, so that the person looking at the cover would see his own head, a play on the album title Head . Peter Tork said, "That was something special... [Jack] Nicholson coordinated the record, made it up from the soundtrack. He made it different from the movie. There's a line in the movie where [Frank] Zappa says, 'That's pretty white.' Then there's another line in

1320-455: A strong lead voice and did sing lead on several Monkees recordings, Dolenz's voice is regarded, particularly by Nesmith, as distinctive and a hallmark of the Monkees' sound. Unlike most television shows of the time, The Monkees episodes were written with many setups, requiring frequent breaks to prepare the set and cameras for short bursts of filming. Some of the "bursts" are considered proto-music videos, inasmuch as they were produced to sell

1408-497: A successful career as recording artists in their own right, releasing three albums on A&M Records : Test Patterns , I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight , and It's All Happening on the Inside (released in Canada as Which One's Boyce and Which One's Hart? ). The duo also had five charting singles; the most well-known of these was " I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight ", which reached No. 8 in early 1968. It sold over one million copies and

1496-506: Is a psychedelic pop song written by Goffin and King , with lead vocals from Micky Dolenz and backing vocals from Davy Jones, and it reached No. 62 on the Billboard charts and No. 26 on the Canadian RPM charts . The film's soundtrack album reached No. 45 on the Billboard charts and No. 24 in Canada. Nicholson assembled the album, weaving dialogue and sound effects from the film in between

1584-551: Is that it features an early use of the Moog synthesizer on two tracks, the Nesmith-penned "Daily Nightly", along with "Star Collector". All of its songs, except for two, were featured on the Monkees' television show during the second season. The song "What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round?", recorded in June 1967 and featured on Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. , is seen as a landmark in

1672-412: 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 track recording from California to New York, leaving the band out of

1760-567: The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll , Boyce and Hart wrote more than 300 songs, and sold more than 42 million records as a partnership. Album Notes Singles notes: Tommy Boyce Singles: Bobby Hart Singles: The Monkees The Monkees were an American pop rock band formed in Los Angeles in the mid-1960s. The band consisted of Micky Dolenz , Davy Jones , Michael Nesmith , and Peter Tork . Spurred by

1848-427: The #2 spot on the charts for the next 11 weeks—the same weeks which became known by the counterculture as the " Summer of Love ". A selection that Dolenz wrote and composed, " Randy Scouse Git ", was issued under the title "Alternate Title" (owing to the controversial nature of its original title ) as a single internationally, where it rose to No. 2 on the charts in the UK and Norway, and in the top 10 in other parts of

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1936-413: The 12 songs on the album, plus the two tracks "Band 6" and "Zilch". The Los Angeles Times , when reviewing Headquarters , stated that "The Monkees Upgrade Album Quality" and that "The Monkees are getting better. Headquarters has more interesting songs and a better quality level [than previous albums]... None of the tracks is a throwaway... The improvement trend is laudable." The high of Headquarters

2024-631: The Beatles' recording session for " A Day in the Life " at Abbey Road Studios. At that time, he reportedly asked John Lennon, "Do you think we're a cheap imitation of the Beatles, your movies and your records?" Lennon replied, "I think you're the greatest comic talent since the Marx Brothers . I've never missed one of your programs". With Kirshner dismissed as musical supervisor, in late February 1967 Nesmith hired former Turtles bassist Douglas Farthing Hatlelid, who

2112-505: The Billboard charts for 11 weeks. As the second season of the television series was being produced, the Monkees tired of the sitcom format and refused to participate in a third season without a major overhaul. NBC was uninterested in making any changes, and so the series was cancelled in February 1968. That same month, the Monkees began filming their feature film, Head . With Bob Rafelson as director and Bert Schneider as executive producer,

2200-413: The Billboard charts shortly after it was released in April 1968. It was the first album released after NBC announced they were not renewing The Monkees for a third season. The album cover—a quaint collage of items in a knickknack shelf—was chosen over the Monkees' objections. It was the last Monkees' album to be released in separate, dedicated mono and stereo mixes. During the 1986 reunion, it returned to

2288-502: The Billboard charts, staying No. 1 for 18 weeks and becoming the third-highest-selling album of the 1960s. "I'm a Believer" was written by Neil Diamond . The Monkees' recording of the single hit the number-one spot on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart for the week ending December 31, 1966, remaining there for seven weeks. "I'm a Believer" became the biggest-selling single for all of 1967. The Monkees' musical opportunities were open beyond their ability to capitalize. Screen Gems held

2376-594: The Byrds and the Association , drummer "Fast" Eddie Hoh , Lowell George , Stephen Stills , Buddy Miles , and Neil Young —a practice that continued for all their studio albums except Justus . Using Chip Douglas again to produce, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. , released in November 1967 was the Monkees' fourth No. 1 album in a row, staying at No. 1 for 5 weeks, and was also their last No. 1 album. It featured

2464-607: 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 his work in Oliver! , 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

2552-539: The Imperials with Teddy Randazzo and his regular songwriting partner, Bobby Weinstein . Boyce co-wrote the song " Hello Pretty Girl ", which was a minor hit for singer Ronnie Dove , with Wes Farrell . Boyce also co-wrote the hit " Peaches 'N' Cream " by the Ikettes . In late 1965, they wrote, produced and performed the soundtrack of the pilot for The Monkees , including singing lead vocals (which were later replaced, once

2640-524: 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

2728-486: 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

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2816-489: The Monkees, made a solo stand as a studio drummer. In commentary for the DVD release of the second season of the show, Tork said that Dolenz was "incapable of repeating a triumph." Having been a drummer for one album, Dolenz lost interest in being a drummer and, indeed, he largely gave up playing instruments on Monkees recordings to session musicians like "Fast" Eddie Hoh . (Producer Chip Douglas also had identified Dolenz's drumming as

2904-532: The Nesmith-composed straightforward pop-rock song "You Just May Be the One" (the only track from their peak years to feature the Monkees playing the same instruments they were shown to play on the television show), used on the television series during both seasons, along with "Shades of Gray" (with piano introduction written by Tork), "Forget that Girl", and "No Time", used in the television show. The Monkees wrote six of

2992-464: 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

3080-699: The UK as support for Andrew Matheson (ex- Hollywood Brats ). The tour was largely ignored by the public, especially in Middlesbrough where reportedly just one person paid to watch the show. Boyce and Hart reunited during the 1980s resurgence of the Monkees, and performed live. During that same year, The First Bobby Hart Solo Album was released in Europe on WEA . The group included: Bobby Hart on keyboard and vocals, Victor Vanacore on keyboards, Larry Taylor on bass, Vince Megna on guitar, John Hoke on drums, and "Blue Jay" Patton on saxophone. Five years later, in 1983, Hart

3168-473: The United States, but it was still their third No. 1 album in a row, with many of its songs played on the second season of the television show. Having a more country-folk-rock sound than the pop outings under Kirshner, Sandoval notes in the 2007 Deluxe Edition reissue from Rhino that the album rose to No. 1 on May 24, 1967, with the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper released the following week, which moved Headquarters to

3256-417: The band members revolted and, after a brief power struggle, gained full control over the recording process in 1967. For two albums, the Monkees mostly performed as a group; however, within a year, each member was pursuing his own interests under the Monkees' name, rendering the Monkees once again a group in name only. With widespread allegations that the band members did not play their own instruments—followed by

3344-497: 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

3432-473: The band's teenage fanbase while failing to attract a more adult audience. Rafelson and Schneider severed all ties to the band amid the bitterness that ensued over the commercial failure of Head . At the time, Rafelson told the press, "I grooved on those four in very special ways while at the same time thinking they had absolutely no talent." Released in October 1968, the single from the album, "The Porpoise Song",

3520-434: The cancellation of The Monkees TV series, diminishing success on the charts, and waning popularity overall—band members began to leave the group. The Monkees held a final recording session in 1970 before breaking up. Renewed interest in the Monkees emerged in 1986, leading to a 20th anniversary reunion. Over the subsequent 35 years, the Monkees intermittently reunited for reunion tours, a major-network television special, and

3608-527: 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

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3696-466: The detriment of the Monkees project. Nesmith added that Head was Rafelson and Nicholson's intentional effort to "kill" the Monkees, so that they would no longer be bothered with the matter. A poor audience response at an August 1968 screening in Los Angeles forced the producers to edit the picture from its original 110-minute length. The 86-minute Head premiered in New York City on November 6, 1968;

3784-480: The film by the group) ruthlessly parodies Boyce and Hart's "Monkees Theme". A sparse advertising campaign (with no mention of the Monkees) hurt any chances of the film doing well, and it played briefly in half-filled theaters. In the DVD commentary, Nesmith said that everyone associated with the Monkees "had gone crazy" by this time. They were each using the platform of the Monkees to push their own disparate career goals, to

3872-458: The film later debuted in Hollywood on November 20. It was not a commercial success. This was in part because Head comprehensively demolished the group's carefully groomed public image while the counterculture audience they had been reaching for rejected the Monkees' efforts out of hand. Receiving mixed critical reviews and virtually non-existent box office receipts, the film succeeded in alienating

3960-402: The fusion of country and rock despite Nesmith's prior country-flavored rock songs for the Monkees. Nesmith stated, "One of the things that I really felt was honest was country-rock. I wanted to move the Monkees more into that because ... if we get closer to country music, we'll get closer to blues, and country blues, and so forth. ... It had a lot of un-country things in it: a familiar change from

4048-459: 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. One of these recordings was "(Theme From) The Monkees" which helped get the series the green light. 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

4136-505: The group members did not always play their own instruments or sing the backing vocals in the studio. They were derisively dubbed the " Pre-Fab Four" and the Sunday Mirror called them a "disgrace to the pop world." However, George Harrison praised the Monkees' self-produced musical attempts. Peter Tork was later one of the musicians on Harrison's album Wonderwall Music , playing Paul McCartney 's five-string banjo . Nesmith attended

4224-519: The hit single "Pleasant Valley Sunday" (#3 on charts) b/w "Words" (#11 on charts), the A-side had Nesmith on electric guitar/backing vocals, Tork on piano/backing vocals, Dolenz on lead vocals and possibly guitar and Jones on backing vocals; the B-side had Dolenz and Tork alternating lead vocals, Tork played organ, Nesmith played guitar, percussion, and provided backing vocals, and Jones provided percussion and backing vocals. Other notable items about this album

4312-444: The instrument, but both declined to give the drum set a try. Jones knew how to play the drums and tested well enough on the instrument; however, the producers believed that he would be virtually hidden from view behind a drum set due to his short stature. Thus, Dolenz (who knew only how to play the guitar) was assigned to become the drummer. Tork taught Dolenz his first few beats on the drums, enough for him to fake his way through filming

4400-545: The instruments on their early records, Boyce and Hart were unsure how the Monkees felt about them personally. Attending one of their concerts, though, the duo was spotted in the audience, and singer Davy Jones invited them onstage to introduce them: "These are the fellows who wrote our great hits — Tommy and Bobby!" Every original Monkees album (except for the Head soundtrack and 1996's Justus ) included Boyce and Hart songs. While working with The Monkees, Boyce and Hart embarked on

4488-405: The last episode of the show's first season). The series was reportedly based loosely on Boyce and Hart's partnership. At this point, they decided to work on various solo projects. Hart co-wrote the 1974 Helen Reddy hit " Keep On Singing " with Danny Janssen. In the mid-1970s, Boyce and Hart reunited with Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz , performing the songs Boyce and Hart had written for The Monkees

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4576-429: The movie that was not juxtaposed in the movie, but Nicholson put them together in the [soundtrack album], when Mike says, 'And the same thing goes for Christmas'... that's funny... very different from the movie... that was very important and wonderful that he assembled the record differently from the movie... It was a different artistic experience." I Wonder What She%27s Doing Tonight Boyce and Hart also recorded

4664-582: The music score for a TV movie called Three's a Crowd starring Larry Hagman and Jessica Walter . Boyce and Hart did promos for the U.S. Army Reserve and Coca-Cola. This included the creation of two Coca-Cola commercial jingles, one being a powerful psychedelic song, "Wake Up Girl", while the other was their single "Smilin'" with totally different lyrics. In 1971 a sitcom named Getting Together appeared on ABC -TV, starring Bobby Sherman and Wes Stern as two struggling songwriters, who were friends of The Partridge Family (and were introduced on their show in

4752-458: 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,

4840-440: The non-album track " Goin' Down " as its B-side, which featured Nesmith and Tork on guitar with Micky on lead vocals. During their 1986 reunion, both Headquarters and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. returned to the charts for 17 weeks. No longer desiring to work as a group, the Monkees dropped Chip Douglas as a producer, and starting in November 1967, they largely produced their own sessions. Although credited to

4928-410: The other Monkees on his sessions, particularly 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,

5016-611: The other musicians involved in the project. The Monkees' first single, " Last Train to Clarksville " b/w "Take a Giant Step", was released in August 1966, just weeks prior to the TV broadcast debut. In conjunction with the first broadcast of the television show on September 12, 1966, on the NBC television network, NBC and Columbia had a major hit on their hands. The single topped the Billboard Hot 100 for

5104-409: The pilot. He was soon taught how to play properly. The lineup for the TV show most frequently featured Nesmith on guitar, Tork on bass, Dolenz on drums and Jones as a frontman, singer and percussionist, despite the fact that this lineup did not correspond to the members' musical strengths. Tork was a more experienced guitar player than Nesmith, while Nesmith had trained on the bass. Also, while Jones had

5192-433: 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

5280-542: The producers, the band went out on the road and made their debut live performance in December 1966 in Hawaii. The results of these live performances were far better than expected. Wherever they went, the group was greeted by scenes of fan adulation reminiscent of Beatlemania . This gave the singers increased confidence in their fight for control over the musical material chosen for the series. In early 1967, controversy concerning

5368-451: The production of 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. The Monkees were formed in the mid-1960s in Los Angeles. Aspiring filmmaker Bob Rafelson developed the initial idea for The Monkees in 1962 and tried selling it to Revue Productions ,

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5456-442: The project was co-written and co-produced by Rafelson with a then-relatively unknown Jack Nicholson . The film, conceived and edited in a stream of consciousness style, featured oddball cameo appearances by movie stars Victor Mature , Annette Funicello , a young Teri Garr (credited as "Terry Garr"), boxer Sonny Liston , famous stripper Carol Doda , Green Bay Packers linebacker Ray Nitschke , and musician Frank Zappa . It

5544-516: The publishing rights to a wealth of material, with the Monkees being offered the first choice of many new songs. Due to the abundance of material numerous tracks were recorded, but dozens were left unreleased until Rhino Records started releasing them through the Missing Links series of albums starting in the late 1980s. The Monkees' UK tour in 1967 received a chilly reception; the front pages of several UK and international music papers proclaimed that

5632-404: The records. The Monkees Tale author Eric Lefcowitz noted that the Monkees were—first and foremost—a video group. Pleased with their initial efforts, Columbia (over Kirshner's objections) planned to send the Monkees out to play live concerts . The massive success of the series—and its spin-off records—created intense pressure to mount a touring version of the group. Against the initial wishes of

5720-405: The release in advance, at having their opinions on the track selection ignored, at Kirshner's self-congratulatory liner notes and also because of the cover photo, which was a composite of photographs taken for a J.C. Penney clothing advertisement. Indeed, the Monkees had not even been given a copy of the album; they had to buy it from a record store. The climax of the rivalry between Kirshner and

5808-510: 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 TV show were musician Michael Nesmith, musician Peter Tork, and actor/musician Micky Dolenz. Nesmith had been working as

5896-503: The show to Screen Gems Television on April 16, 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

5984-555: The show was cast). In 1966, despite some conflicts with Don Kirshner , who was the show's musical supervisor, they were retained in essentially the same role. It was Boyce and Hart who wrote, produced and recorded, accompanied by their backing band, the Candy Store Prophets, backing tracks for a large portion of the first season of The Monkees , and the band's accompanying debut album. The Monkees themselves re-recorded their vocals over Boyce and Hart's when it came time to release

6072-410: The songs they had produced for the Monkees. It did not include any songs from their new album. Boyce released an album under the pseudonym Christopher Cloud in 1973. He produced several hit records for the UK rock n roll revival group Darts including, " Daddy Cool / The Girl Can't Help It ", " Come Back My Love " and "It's Raining". In 1979, he formed his own band, called The Tommy Band , and toured

6160-413: The songs, including both " (Theme from) The Monkees " and " Last Train to Clarksville ", the latter being a huge hit. Kirshner suddenly relieved Boyce and Hart as producers, by claiming they were using studio time booked for Monkees songs to record tracks for their own solo project. After their departure from the Monkees, and the negative publicity that erupted when word got out that the band had not played

6248-436: The songs. The six (plus "Ditty Diego") Monkees songs on the album range from psychedelic pop to straightforward rockers to Broadway rock to eastern-influenced pop to a folk-rock ballad. Although the Monkees performed "Circle Sky" live in the film, the studio version was chosen for the album. The live version was later released on various compilations, including Rhino's Missing Links series of Monkees albums. The album also includes

6336-470: The soundtrack to the second season of the television show. In March 1967, " The Girl I Knew Somewhere ", composed by Nesmith and performed by Dolenz, Nesmith, Tork and bassist John London , was issued as the B-side to the Monkees' third single, " A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You ", and it rose to No. 39 on the charts. The A-side rose to No. 2. Issued in May 1967, Headquarters had no songs released as singles in

6424-522: The stage with Pete Seeger ; he learned of The Monkees from Stephen Stills , whom Rafelson and Schneider had rejected as a songwriter. Dolenz was an actor (his father was veteran character actor George Dolenz ) who had starred in the Screen Gems-produced TV series Circus Boy as a child, using the stage name Mickey Braddock. He had also played guitar and sung in a band called the Missing Links, which released one single, "Don't Do It". During

6512-485: The success of TV series The Monkees , the Monkees were one of the most successful bands of the late 1960s. With international hits, four chart-topping albums and three chart-topping songs (" Last Train to Clarksville ", " I'm a Believer ", and " Daydream Believer "), they sold more than 75 million records worldwide. The Monkees were originally a fictional band created for the NBC television sitcom The Monkees . Dolenz, Jones, Nesmith and Tork were cast to portray members of

6600-565: 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

6688-484: The three sitcom guest appearances featured their music, including two unreleased covers they performed on The Flying Nun . Boyce and Hart had filmed video promos for their songs "Out and About" and "Alice Long". Boyce and Hart were involved in producing music for Columbia Pictures' motion pictures during the mid-late 1960s, including two Matt Helm movies ( The Ambushers and Murderers' Row ), Winter A-Go-Go and Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows . They also provided

6776-419: The weak point in the collective musicianship of the quartet, having to splice together multiple takes of Dolenz's "shaky" drumming for final use.) By this point, the four did not have a common vision regarding their musical interests, with Nesmith and Jones also moving in different directions—Nesmith following his country/folk instincts and Jones reaching for Broadway-style numbers. The next three albums featured

6864-553: The week ending November 5, 1966. The Monkees' debut album, The Monkees , was released a month later; it spent 13 weeks at No. 1 and stayed on the Billboard charts for 78 weeks. Twenty years later, during their reunion, it spent another 24 weeks on the Billboard charts. In assigning instruments for purposes of the television show, a dilemma arose as to which of the four would portray the drummer. Both Nesmith (a skilled guitarist and bassist) and Tork (who could play several stringed and keyboard instruments) were peripherally familiar with

6952-399: The whole band, the songs were mostly solo efforts. In a couple of cases, Boyce and Hart had returned from the first two albums to produce, but credit was given to the Monkees due to contractual requirements. Propelled by the hit singles "Daydream Believer" and " Valleri ", along with Nesmith's self-penned top 40 hit "Tapioca Tundra", The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees reached No. 3 on

7040-434: The world. Tork's "For Pete's Sake" was used as the closing theme for the television show. Nesmith continued in his country-rock leanings, adding the pedal steel guitar to three of the songs, along with contributing his self-composed countrified-rock song "Sunny Girlfriend". Tork added the banjo to the Nesmith-composed rocker "You Told Me", a song whose introduction was satirical of the Beatles' "Taxman". Other notable songs are

7128-544: Was also recorded in Japan, but was not released in the United States until the mid-1990s.) The tours coincided with the syndication of The Monkees TV series, and helped boost sales of Arista's The Monkees Greatest Hits . Dolenz, Jones, Boyce and Hart also starred in their own TV special called The Great Golden Hits of the Monkees Show , which appeared in syndication. It featured a medley of other Boyce and Hart songs, as well as

7216-556: Was awarded a gold disc . "Out & About" (#39) and "Alice Long" (#27) were their other Top 40 hits. The duo also performed "I'll Blow You a Kiss in the Wind" on the television show Bewitched , in one of several TV series appearances that included guest spots on The Flying Nun and I Dream of Jeannie ("Jeannie the Hip Hippie"). All of these shows were produced by Screen Gems , the television subsidiary of Columbia Pictures . Each of

7304-456: Was better known by his stage name Chip Douglas , to produce the next Monkees album. This album was to be the first Monkees album where they were the only musicians, outside of most of the bass and the horns. Douglas was responsible for both music presentation—actually leading the band and engineering recordings—and playing bass on most of Headquarters . This album, along with their next, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. , served as

7392-504: Was filmed at Columbia Pictures ' Screen Gems studios and on location in California, Utah , and the Bahamas between February 19 and May 17, 1968, and premiered in New York City on November 6 of that year (the film later debuted in Hollywood on November 20). The film was the antithesis of The Monkees television show. Rafelson and Nicholson's "Ditty Diego-War Chant" (recited at the start of

7480-421: Was much better, but I think it suffers for that reason." With Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. , the Monkees' fourth album, they went back to making music for the television show, except that they had control over the music and which songs would be chosen. They used a mixture of themselves and session musicians on the album, including the Wrecking Crew , Louie Shelton , Glen Campbell , members of

7568-462: Was nominated for an Oscar for his song "Over You", written for the film Tender Mercies . After a stint living in the UK, Boyce returned to live in Memphis, Tennessee , where he taught songwriting on Beale Street , and Nashville, Tennessee . But he struggled with depression, and later had a brain aneurysm . On November 23, 1994, he committed suicide by gunshot . He was 55 years old. According to

7656-411: Was short-lived, however. Recording and producing as a group was Tork's major interest and he hoped that the four would continue working together as a band on future recordings, according to the liner notes of the 2007 Rhino reissue of Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. . "Cuddly Toy" on Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. marked the last time Dolenz, who originally played guitar before

7744-504: Was to just go back to the original songwriting and song-making strategy of the first albums except with a clear indication of how [the music] came to be... The rabid element and the hatred that was engendered is almost impossible to describe. It lingers to this day among people my own age." Tork disagreed with Nesmith's assessment of Headquarters , stating, "I don't think the Pisces album was as groovy to listen to as Headquarters . Technically it

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