Maps of Music

The Monkees (1966)

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

The cover credits the band as playing instruments, yet the group's actual contributions were limited almost entirely to vocal tracks.

Key places

Recorded in Los Angeles sessions (1966)

Recording site The Music Grinder (Hollywood) — The album was recorded in numerous separate sessions around Los Angeles from July 5 to 25, 1966. RCA Victor Studios in Hollywood is linked to this album as a recording place. This point uses city-level coordinates, not the exact studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• The Monkees: debut studio album by the American band the Monkees
• Released October 10, 1966 by Colgems Records in the United States and RCA Victor elsewhere
• First of four consecutive U.S. number one albums for the group
• Topped the Billboard 200 for 13 weeks before the band's second album displaced it
• Also topped the UK charts in 1967
• Certified quintuple platinum by the RIAA, with sales of over five million copies

Background

• Late 1965: Screen Gems approved a pilot for a TV series called The Monkees
• Producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider (Raybert Productions) wanted funding for experimental movies
• The sitcom idea about a garage band was inspired by Richard Lester's A Hard Day's Night and Rafelson's own experience as a musician
• An open casting call was advertised in Variety; 437 aspirants applied
• Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork were chosen as the Monkees in September 1965
• Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart composed and recorded four songs used on the original pilot
• February 1966: Columbia ordered 32 episodes after the second screening of the pilot was a success
• Don Kirshner became musical supervisor, since his publishing firm had a wide portfolio of Brill Building songwriters
• Screen Gems and RCA Victor formed the joint venture Colgems Records, mainly to distribute Monkees records

Recording

• Recorded in numerous separate sessions around Los Angeles from July 5–25, 1966
• Early sessions were produced by Tommy Boyce, Bobby Hart and Jack Keller; later sessions by Boyce and Hart
• Michael Nesmith produced two sessions scheduled around the work of Boyce, Hart and Keller
• Management did not permit the Monkees to function as a working band for this album
• Seven of the 12 tracks feature one Monkee singing lead over session musicians
• Only the two Nesmith-produced tracks have a Monkee (Peter Tork) playing an instrument, guitar
• No track on the album features all four Monkees

Cover

• Photos in the back-cover film strip come from two episodes of the TV series
• Early pressings misspelled the song title "Papa Jean's Blues", later corrected to "Papa Gene's Blues"
• The 1968 reissue replaced the word "Colgems" in the bottom right corner of the reverse with the Colgems logo

Sources: en.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

• Released October 10, 1966 by Colgems Records in the United States and RCA Victor in the rest of the world
• First of four consecutive U.S. number one albums for the group
• Held the top spot on the Billboard 200 for 13 weeks
• Displaced from the top by the band's second album
• The only hit single from the album was "Last Train to Clarksville", released shortly before the album

Records

• "Last Train to Clarksville" went to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart
• The album topped the UK charts in 1967
• Certified quintuple platinum by the RIAA
• Sales of over five million copies
• The first of the group's four consecutive U.S. number one albums
• Sales and chart milestones make the album one of the group's biggest commercial releases

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Rafelson and Schneider wanted funding for experimental movies, which led them to propose a sitcom about a garage band.
• "I'll Be True to You" had been released earlier as a single by the Hollies in January 1965 under the title "Yes I Will".
• Don Kirshner was dubbed "the Man with the Golden Ear" and saw potential in merging television and music.
• Early pressings of the LP cover misspelled "Papa Jean's Blues"; RCA's standard practice was to add an "RE" to the catalog number when a side or sleeve was revised.
• Boyce and Hart were called back after sessions with Mickie Most, Snuff Garrett and Carole King did not work well.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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