One of my favorite bands from the ’60’s is The Monkees, and I hate it when people say, “They weren’t a real band.”
Granted in the beginning, they really weren’t. They were four guys who auditioned for the TV show and they were thrown together by a TV studio to be, The Monkees. The TV show was hilarious and their first two albums produced two number one hits. On those two albums, only Mike Nesmith played a little guitar and wrote a few songs that appeared on the albums. Mickey Dolenz and Davy Jones sang most of the songs with Nesmith handling lead vocals on the tunes he wrote.
However, when the band started touring, all four of them played their own instruments and sang. This is when they became a real band and it’s is when they demanded control over their music and what songs they would record.
Their third album, Headquarters was released in May of 1967 and all of the music and vocals are played and sung by the four Monkees. Nesmith, Dolenz and Tork all wrote songs that appeared on the album. The producer, Chip Douglas played some bass on the album, but outside of him and a French Horn player, it’s all The Monkees and it’s a great album!
After that, they started utilizing session musicians again, but all four continued to play musical instruments on the songs, particularly Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork.
This Wednesday is Mickey Dolenz’s birthday, so in honor of that, I’m putting up links to online articles about The Monkees and a video of their original screen tests for the TV show.
And then there’s the MBIP Coming Attractions for next week.
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Sunday Links
The Story Of The Monkees - This is a great article that details the history of The Monkees.
The Monkees’ Tragic Real-Life Story - I had no idea about some of these tragic Monkees happenings in their lives.
11 Things You Might Not Know About The Monkees - Some interesting Monkees factoids here.
Top Ten ‘The Monkees’ TV Episodes - I need to search these out on YouTube!
The Monkees Complete Discography - This is a great discography that not only lists every album, it’s got a clickable link to each LP for credits and reviews of the albums.
On this day in 1968: “The Monkees” TV series concludes - The last show was the beginning of the end of The Monkees.
The Monkees Tried To Cut Their Strings With ‘Head’ - And their movie “Head” was pretty much the end of the end. After that, Peter Tork quit, then Mike Nesmith and soon it was no more Monkee business until they reunited in the ’80’s.
The Original Monkees Screen Tests - Here’s the original screen tests that got them on the air. There’s silence in the beginning, but the audio kicks in after about a half a minute.
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MBIP Coming Attractions
Monday: I had a nice reunion with friends from my past and we had a super-fun dinner at Jonah’s Seafood House and Oyster Bar. The friends will be revealed tomorrow, so tune in and see photos of our fun Saturday night!
Tuesday: It’s week number two of my grilled cheese tour and I stopped in at Donnelly’s Irish Pub and sampled their grilled cheese sandwich.
Wednesday: I had lunch with my friend Jerry Kolb at W.E. Sullivan’s and you can read about that next Wednesday.
Thursday: I’m going on a fun road trip today with MBIP pal and Wheelman, Scott Turly and I’ll be posting photos from our run day on Thursday!
Friday: I’ll be reviewing another frozen pizza for the Midwest Slice of Life this Friday.
Saturday: We’ll be taking another look back at Peoria’s past for another Meanwhile Back in Peoria’s Past post.
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Sunday Comic
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Related Posts: Sunday Links: Easy Rider, The End Of The Century By The Ramones. and Sonny And Cher.