Inside the World of The Monkees — They Were Much More Than the ‘Pre-Fab 4’

‘The Monkees’ Was TV’s Answer to The Beatles

By 1965, Beatlemania was in full blooms, which is why, when you look at the music between 1964 and 1966, you’ll find that virtually every band was a physical copy of The Beatles, with music that attempted to capture their sound. The word is that filmmaker Bob Rafelson actually had the concept for The Monkees — or at least the idea of creating a band for a television series — in mind as early as 1962, but nobody would listen to him. After the arrival of John, Paul, George and Ringo, and their first film, A Hard Day’s Night (1964), people began listening.

The Lovin’ Spoonful Was First Choice For the Show

The band, which was put together by John Sebastian, hadn't burst onto the charts yet with songs like "Do You Believe in Magic" and "Summer in the City." What they had done, however, was sign a recording contract. Doing so would prevent the TV show's production company, Screen Gems, from making money off of the music (and the soundtrack for the movie was the primary reason that A Hard Day's Night even existed; it's box office success was just gravy). So they were a no-go.

Meet the Monkee: Davy Jones

Born on Dec. 30, 1945, in England, Davey Thomas Jones had some experience as a jockey (the horse-riding kind, not the music-playing sort). Leaving that notion behind, he began exploring acting and scored the role of the Artful Dodger in a West End followed by Broadway production of Oliver!. A performance from it that he and the cast gave on The Ed Sullivan Show on Feb. 9, 1964 (the same night The Beatles made their debut — how's that for irony?), caught the attention of the producers of The Monkees. Davy signed a deal with Columbia Pictures that secured him for film work, their TV division Screen Gems, and their record unit Colpix for music. You could say he was tailor made for the opportunity of The Monkees, on which he was labeled the "cute" one. Following his time as a part of The Monkees, Davy would make some TV guest appearances (most notably on The Brady Bunch) and continue recording music. Sadly, he passed away on Feb. 29, 2012, at the age of 66.

Meet the Monkee: Micky Dolenz

He was born George Michael Dolenz, Jr. on March 8, 1945, in Los Angeles. He actually began his career acting, starring in a 1956-58 children’s show called Circus Boy (his credit on that was Mickey Braddock). A bit of TV guest-starring followed, but acting wasn’t something he seriously pursued. Music was where his heart was at, and in the early 1960s he even had a band called Mickey and the One-Nighters. He auditioned, and was hired, for The Monkees by performing Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode. Micky's role was to be the "funny" one of the group.

Meet the Monkee: Peter Tork

Born Peter Halsten Thorkelson on Feb. 13, 1942, in Washington, DC, he began to develop his love for music at age nine, which is when he started to study the piano. He also began playing a number of different instruments, and in the early 1960s moved to New York to become a part of the growing Folk Music movement in Greenwich Village. Singer-songwriter Stephen Stills recommended him to the producers of The Monkees, and he was hired. He was the “naive” Monkee. Sadly, he passed away on February 21 of this year.

Meet the Monkee: Michael Nesmith

Hailing from Houston, Texas, and born Dec. 30, 1942, Robert Michael Nesmith served a tour of duty in the Air Force and, after receiving a guitar as a present from his mother and stepfather, he immersed himself in music, writing songs and working in different bands. He was the only member of The Monkees that actually responded to an ad seeking people to audition. His mother, by the way, invented typewriter correction fluid (yes, it was once a thing), which she ultimately sold the rights to for $48 million. Mike was The Monkees' "smart" one (with each of them having a designation, which is how the media dubbed The Beatles).

The Show’s Success Included a Couple of Emmy Awards

Once The Monkees was given the go-ahead for production, it was decided that it would be filmed with quick cuts, improvisation, storylines that were kept very loose, and occasionally breaking the fourth wall and addressing the audience. It was the avant-garde approach that was popular in Europe at the time, and which director Richard Lester had infused into A Hard Day's Night.

The series ran from September 12, 1966, to March 25, 1968, for a total of 58 episodes. During those two years, it won the 1967 Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Comedy Series (actually beating such shows as Get Smart, Bewitched, Hogan's Heroes, and The Andy Griffith Show), as well as for director James Frawley in the category of Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy. Reruns went to Saturday mornings, airing on CBS from 1969 to 1972. In 1975, it went into general syndication, appearing on different stations all around the country. Then, in 1986, MTV — when the cable network was about music — began airing the reruns, presenting it to a whole new audience and triggering a new wave of Monkeemania.

They Even Had Their Own Car: The Monkeemobile!

Batman had the Batmobile, James Bond had the Aston Martin, and the Pre-Fab Four had the Monkeemobile, which was, in reality, a modified Pontiac GTO. The car, which was designed by Dean Jeffries (who had also designed the "Black Beauty" on the Green Hornet superhero TV show), included a tilted forward two-piece windshield, a unique convertible top that was perfect for touring, exaggerated tail lamps, and four bucket seats and an extra third row bench in place of what had been a trunk. Oh, and let's not forget the rear-mounted parachute.

The Monkees’ Music Evolved

Early on, Don Kirshner was put in charge of The Monkees’ music. In the late 1950s and early ’60s, Kirshner was co-owner of Aldon Music, a music publishing house whose clients included Carole King (for her story, check out the Broadway musical Beautiful), Neil Sadaka, Neil Diamond, Paul Simon and Phil Spector. He managed groups as well, including, besides The Monkees, Kansas and The Archies. Early in the 1960s, Aldon Music was sold to Screen Gems and Krishner was hired to bring in songwriting talent — necessary since each episode was going to feature a different song.

For the first year, Davy, Micky, Pete, and Mike handled the vocal duties on their recordings, while others played the instruments. The guys could play, but not well enough to handle the recording sessions — on film they would mime playing. A year in, things changed: they desperately desired to play the instruments, they wanted more control over what songs would be on their albums, and, most importantly, word leaked that the guys hadn’t played in the first year and there was a really good chance it could have resulted in a fan backlash.

At the star of this whole thing, Don Kirshner brought on composer Snuff Garrett to produce songs for the series, and it was the latter’s decision to make Davy Jones the lead singer. This did not sit well with the other members of the group, and in the end, Mike Nesmith would actually end up producing, with Micky Dolenz serving as lead singer (though the others would sing as well). Eventually, competition for control grew between Kirshner and The Monkees, and he was let go, allowing the band to have a little more say in charting its destiny.

The Monkees’ Discography

The Monkees made plenty of albums together over the years. And in case you want to try out naming them all from memory, here you go:

The Monkees (1966): Single, “Last Train to Clarksville” (#1 in America); More of the Monkees (1966): Single, “I’m a Believer” (#1 in America); Headquarters (1967): Single, “Randy Scouse Git” (not released in US); Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. (1967): Single, “Pleasant Valley Sunday” (#3 in America); The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees (1968): Single, “Daydream Believer” (#1 in America); Head (1968): Single, “Porpoise Song” (#62 in America); Instant Replay (1969): Single, “Tear Drop City” (#56 in America); The Monkees Present (1969): Singles, “Listen to the Band” (#63 in America), “Good Clean Fun” (#82 in America); Changes (1970): Single, “Oh My My” (#98 in America); Pool It! (1987): Single, “Every Step of the Way” (did not chart); Justus (1996); Good Times (2016): Singles, “She Makes Me Laugh”, “You Bring the Summer”, “Me & Magdalena” (none charted).

The Monkees Hit the Road

It really became a necessity for the guys to learn how to play their instruments so that they could actually perform concerts and go on tour to support both the TV show and their albums. They made their debut as a live band in Hawaii in December 1966, and continued touring until May of 1967. In the summer of 1967, they toured both the US and the UK. The following year — to the kind of popularity that had greeted The Beatles at the height of Beatlemania — saw them in Japan and Australia.

Then Came ‘Head’

When NBC decided not to renew The Monkees for a third season, producer Bob Rafelson (along with screenwriter Jack Nicholson — yes, that Jack Nicholson) decided that the time was right to offer up a subversive view of the whole Monkees thing. Happy to join them was Davy, Micky, Peter and Mike, who had been burned out from the whole experience and assaulted by the media that was pretty merciless in tearing them down. The result was Head, released in 1968, and it’s a film with little plot and is little more than a collection of comic vignettes and musical performances. Think of it as their version of The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour, though not as good (and that’s saying something, considering how derided that film was and remains). The end result of this film is that The Monkees effectively alienated the people who had been their fans, and failed to reach the older, deeper audience they had hoped to. Head did no one involved any favors.

One Era Ends As a New One Begins

By 1971 — three years after the TV show that had brought them together finished its original run and two years after Peter bought himself out of his contract — The Monkees disbanded. But they would reunite for some recordings and concert tours periodically over the next few decades (including a new one this year with Micky and Mike). They initially fell apart though, largely because of differing music tastes, accompanied by a seemingly non-stop assault from the media. The ongoing criticism ripped them apart as being fakes without any genuine musical talent, and mocking them (unfairly) for being what they started out as: a so-called "pre-fabricated" band. And while that was indeed how The Monkees began its existence, few could deny what they ultimately accomplished or how many people they touched through the television series, their music, and their concerts.

Take a Deeper Monkees Dive With Micky Dolenz

If you’d like to take a more in depth look at The Monkees through the eyes of one of the guys who was there, check out our exclusive interview with Micky Dolenz.