The Monkees

Yesterday the Princeton Record Exchange's Facebook account posted a question: What is your favorite Monkees' song? That sent me on a nostalgic journey, as this band has deep roots in my memory. Picking a favorite song is almost impossible, as there are too many good ones.

The Monkees had no right being any good. Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, inspired by the Beatles' films, pitched a TV show about a rock band. I was interested to read that they originally wanted to use an existing group--Lovin' Spoonful, no less--but recording contract problems nixed that, so they put an ad in the trades for actors. The style of the show would be similar to Richard Lester's Beatle films--a touch of the Marx Brothers, with some 1960s counter-culture. The music was an afterthought.

But serendipity would ensure that the actors chosen would all be talented and would bring to the table their own qualities. Mickey Dolenz, a child actor known for being "Circus Boy," was the sensible one. Davy Jones (who had played the Artful Dodger in Oliver! on stage) was the dreamboat. Mike Nesmith, perpetually wearing a wool cap, was the droll, intelligent one, while Peter Tork was the dumb and sweet one. Initially there role in the music were as vocalists only, but they would eventually prove they were excellent musicians, and begin to write their own songs.

Originally, though, and the reason The Monkees are still remembered today, is that the songwriters who worked on their first few albums (their four first original albums went to number one--the first two were numbers one and two for the year in 1967) were brilliant. Primarily it was Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, who wrote, among others, the group's first single, "Last Train to Clarksville." Neil Diamond would write "I'm a Believer," a perfect bit of pop craftsmanship, the team of Gerry Goffin and Carole King wrote "Pleasant Valley Sunday," and John Stewart of the Kingston Trio penned "Daydream Believer."

The Monkees are represented in my music collection by a double-disc set anthology, which includes almost everything, including the stuff they did during a brief revival in the 1980s. In addition to the hits mentioned above, I am partial to songs sung by Mike, such as "Papa Gene's Blues," "Sweet Young Thing" (another Goffin-King song, with input by Nesmith), and "What Am I Doing Hangin' Round." I listened to the discs last night, and have had various tunes running through my head since then, such as "(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone," "Words," "Saturday's Child," "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You," and "She." The one song I really don't care for is "I'm Free," in which Davy sings at his most cloying.

I have a faint recollection of watching the show when it first aired (it debuted in 1966, when I was five). It was very silly, and thus appealing to small children, but I realized, when MTV re-aired episodes during the 1980s, that the show did not age well.

Though modeled after The Beatles, The Monkees have their own place in rock history. They didn't last long, though. They ended up aping the psychedelic sound in their fourth studio album, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd., which was a departure from the more radio-friendly pop fare that came before. They were also the stars of the ill-fated film Head, a collaboration by Rafelson and Jack Nicholson, that is one of the most incomprehensible films that I've ever seen.

The Monkees' comet blazed for a short time, but the trail is still there, as the songs are timeless. I still can't decide what my favorite one is.