History of The Monkees album (1966)

"The Monkees" is the initial album by the band of the same name (the other side of the envelope has an alternative title, "Meet The Monkees"), released in autumn 1966 in America by Colgems Records and RCA Records for all other countries.

The release of the series and the birth of the band

The band came into being after a TV series about a rock band that never existed. The idea was born by two Hollywood masters, Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, in 1965. Inspired by the film "A Hard Day's Night" about the famous Beatles, they also decided to reflect in cinema the development of the rock band and relationships within it. "The Monkees" is a parody reference to the title of "The Beatles". Even the principle of deliberate lexical distortion is repeated: instead of Beetles, the Beatles named themselves with a change of one letter, and similarly Monkeys are written with a change of "y" to "e". And the pronunciation of words is not affected by these mistakes.

While still in development, the series was bought by Screen Gems. And this caused some difficulties: the authors of the idea wanted to base it on the real story of the Los Angeles folk-rock band "Lovin' Spoonful". But the band had a contract with another company, so releasing the music from the series on records was out of the question. It was necessary to start searching for another band, and in this variant and this situation - to create it. And already in the September 1965 issues of the Los Angeles newspapers Daily Variety and The Hollywood Reporter there was an announcement about the creation of a rock band staff.

The principle was taken from the Beatles: four actors were selected who resembled the Beatles in appearance - Americans Mike Nesmith, Peter Tork, Mickey Dolenz and Englishman David Jones. Dolenz acted as drummer, the others were guitarists. First of all, recruited guys for their acting ability, but not for musical ability. They had to perform songs without taking part in the writing and recording of musical compositions.

Interesting sound

Everything about the musical part of the series fell to Don Kirschner, the head of the musical branch of Screen Gems. He had to develop from scratch the musical idea of the new group. In the first time of work he wanted to involve someone from Hollywood composers in the process, but it did not arouse interest in the professional environment. So producers Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart were found, who were encouraged by the idea. They made four compositions quite quickly and recorded demos of them with their own voices.

Kirchner allowed Mike Nesmith to act as producer of The Monkees' recordings when he was not performing those songs. Nesmith brought in band members not only as vocalists but also - Peter Tork, for example - as a guitarist. But Boyce and Hart later noted that when the whole band got together, there was a crazy competition that started, which slowed down the process. That's why usually the studio work was done with everyone separately.

According to Nesmith, it was Mickey Dolenz's vocals that gave the band its unique sound, and despite the ambition of all the others, it was he who sang the songs most often. And even when everyone was trying to get their own way, the members trusted Dolenz to sing without question.

A still from a TV series that turned into a famous gif

In order to publish and sell records, a special conglomerate called Colgems Records was formed, and it included Columbia - Screen Gems and such a powerful market leader as RCA Records.

Prior to the TV series, in the summer of 1966, a 45 with "Last Train to Clarksville" and the song "Take a Giant Step" on the back was available for sale. By the time the series was released in September 1966, the song was in Billboard's top ranking, reaching number one in November.

The composition is reminiscent of the Beatles' "Paperback Writer" and was critically acclaimed. According to the show's script, it is sung by a military man dialling the number of the woman he loves and urging her to catch the last train to Clarksville so they can spend the night together, but in the morning he has to leave for duty somewhere far away and it is unclear whether they will ever see each other again. Or if he'd still be alive.

It is interesting that in the state of Tennessee there is a town with such a name - Clarksville, and not far from it in Fort Campbell is located the 101st American Air Division, but here, as they say, the authors got intuitive: Boyce and Hart only looked for consonance.

Fame and achievements

The composition "I'll Be True to You" became a hit in 1965 by the British "The Hollies". The second album track "Saturday's Child" was once regarded as heavy rock. Fans in 1966 perceived the opening guitar riff in a way similar to the way heavy metal is heard today.

The album was released about a month after the TV series - on 10 October 1966. It turned out to be the first of the four consecutively released most popular albums of the band and remained at the top of the Billboard 200 charts for 13 weeks, and then five more times it was recognised as platinum. In 1967, it topped the British charts.

The TV series, which was broadcast in 1966-1968, became very popular in the States. It was often considered the American version of the Beatles film. In 1967, sales of the album broke the records of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones - and in their sum!

Of course, promotion in the American media was important, especially since business in America was not at all interested in settling for second roles after the success of the British. That's important. But let's not discount the charisma of this amazing foursome, chosen first as an illustration and then worked their way up to a distinctive, unique creation. "The Monkees had a strong influence on the atmosphere of the 60s.

The Beatles on The Monkees ...

The Beatles themselves, who became the prototypes of the film, actively followed the course of events and spoke about the film very kindly:

John Lennon:

"I'm sure they're the most gifted comic actors since the Marx Brothers. I've always followed them." The Monkees? They have a niche, and that's fine. Try to broadcast every week and we'll see if it's half as good!"

Paul McCartney:

"I'm a fan of their music and the characters themselves. I watch their broadcasts all the time."

George Harrison:

"They're growing, I see it whenever I see them. They're still searching for themselves. And when they realise that finally, they have every chance to be great."

Ringo Starr:

"I think the successful combination of sound with all sorts of tricks and stuff makes them famous among kids. For me, too." "They're not copies of us at all, are they? They have their own way, can't you tell?"

Album cover

Fans have formed a number of opinions about the front of the image. The image is a left to right photo of Mike, Mickey, Peter and Davey. And it is striking that the latter three are looking into the frame with smiles, while Mike is annoyed and saying something. He was just showing his displeasure at the stretched photo shoot, and fans are fantasising about what he might have said.

According to one popular version, Mike asks the photographer to shoot after the count of three, and he was filmed just at the moment of saying "three". There's another view. Mike tells the photographer to shoot until he counts to ten, at which point he leaves the set because he can't take it anymore. And then it looks like the shot took place at the moment of counting "ѕix".

On the back, in a mock film with a series of frames, the top three are borrowed from the episode "Your Friendly Neighbourhood Kidnappers" and the bottom two from the episode "The Spy Who Came In From The Cool".

The first versions of the cover turned out to have a typo: the track "Papa Gene's Blues" turned out to be called "Papa Jean's Blues", according to the variant cover and record label.

As the recording was made with the participation of the musicians involved, there is a list of those who were involved in the sessions. Among them it is quite possible to find popular future musicians who have been seen in various creative teams and projects.