Maps of Music

Headquarters (1967)

Where the lyrics of Headquarters take you, and where it was really made.

Headquarters hit No. 1 in the US, but the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's replaced it the next week and held the No. 2 spot for 11 straight weeks.

Key places

Recorded at RCA Victor's Music Center of the World, Hollywood (1967)

Recording site The Music Grinder (Hollywood) — Discogs credits the album's recording to RCA Victor's Music Center of the World. The candidate location is city-level (Hollywood), so the exact building is not confirmed. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Headquarters: third studio album by the American pop rock band The Monkees
• Released May 22, 1967 by Colgems Records
• Sold over two million copies in its first two months (double platinum)
• Reached No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart

Background

• The group fought supervisor Don Kirshner for creative control over their music
• First Monkees album on which the four members played instruments and wrote much of the material
• Kirshner had begun supervising sessions with studio musicians; Davy Jones sang on some tracks
• The group recorded 'All of Your Toys' and 'The Girl I Knew Somewhere' themselves to prove they could play their own accompaniment
• The dispute escalated when Kirshner released a single without approval; he was dismissed from the Monkees project
• The group then got full creative control, and the remaining Kirshner-supervised tracks were discarded

Recording

• After winning the right to produce their own recordings, the group recorded the album with producer Chip Douglas
• They largely dispensed with session musicians
• Recording location recorded as RCA Victor's Music Center of the World in Hollywood

Cover

• The original rear cover collage mislabeled an engineer's photo, which became known as the 'producers cover'
• The corrected 'beard cover' shows the members with light beards, and Davy's shoulder-length hair cut off
• The corrected version carries catalog number COS/COM-103 RE

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · ko.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• The Monkees were an American pop rock band formed in Los Angeles in the mid-1960s.
• The group was conceived in 1965 by television producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider for the NBC sitcom of the same name, which aired from 1966 to 1968.
• Casting drew 437 applicants; Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork, and Micky Dolenz were chosen.

Members

• Micky Dolenz: lead and backing vocals, drums, guitar, keyboards.
• Davy Jones: lead and backing vocals, percussion, bass; died in 2012.
• Michael Nesmith: lead and rhythm guitars, keyboards, vocals; died in 2021.
• Peter Tork: bass, guitars, keyboards, banjo, vocals; died in 2019.

Career

• Early music was largely performed by session musicians such as the Wrecking Crew under Don Kirshner's supervision.
• The band had four consecutive No. 1 albums in 1966–1967: The Monkees, More of the Monkees, Headquarters, and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.
• They had three No. 1 singles: "Last Train to Clarksville", "I'm a Believer", and "Daydream Believer".
• The members gained control over their recordings in 1967 after a conflict with Kirshner.
• The film Head (1968) was a commercial failure; the group broke up in the early 1970s.
• A revival in 1986 led to intermittent reunions, new albums, and tours until 2021.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Charted at No. 1 in the U.S. on release
• Replaced the following week by Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
• Then ran 11 consecutive weeks at No. 2, with Sgt. Pepper's and Headquarters as the two top-selling records of the 'Summer of Love' period
• Reached No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart
• Sold over two million copies within the first two months of release

Reappraisal

• Included in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (Robert Dimery, ed., 2006)
• 2000: Rhino Handmade issued The Headquarters Sessions, a three-disc box set of outtakes and the original mono mix in a rejected running order (reissue)
• 2007: two-disc deluxe edition with remastered stereo and mono mixes, alternate mixes and outtakes, and a booklet by Andrew Sandoval (reissue)
• 2022: four-disc Super Deluxe Edition including tracks from the aborted January 1967 Kirshner sessions (reissue)

Records

• Billboard 200 number one in the US, the Monkees' third consecutive number-one album there
• Double platinum certification in the US
• UK Albums Chart No. 2
• First issued on compact disc by Arista Records in 1989

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · it.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The album reached No. 1 in the US and was replaced the following week by Sgt. Pepper's, then held No. 2 for 11 straight weeks.
• The 'producers cover' photo caption wrongly identified engineer Hank Cicalo as the man beside producer Chip Douglas, and the label corrected it by swapping the photo.
• 'No Time' was developed as a jam between the band members, but the writing credit went solely to engineer Hank Cicalo as an 'expression of gratitude'.
• 'Band 6' is an uncredited rendition of 'Merrily We Roll Along'.
• The producer credit for Chip Douglas reads Douglas Farthing Hatlelid on the technical credits.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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