Released on October 10, 1966, The Monkees became a chart phenomenon, but the record also captured the unusual reality behind a television band whose members were initially largely kept away from the instruments.
by Paul Cashmere
When The Monkees released their self-titled debut album on October 10, 1966, the record introduced one of the decade’s most successful pop groups. Sixty years later, its most revealing story is found not in the hit songs, but in the musicians who played behind them.
The Monkees spent 13 weeks at number one on the US Billboard 200 and became the first of four consecutive US number one albums for the group. It also topped the UK chart in 1967 and has been certified five-times platinum in the United States for shipments of five million copies.
Yet the album was created under circumstances that would become central to the Monkees story. Although Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork were presented as a band, their management initially did not allow them to operate as a conventional recording group.
Much of the instrumentation on The Monkees was supplied by Los Angeles session musicians. Seven of the 12 tracks feature a single Monkee singing lead over backing tracks recorded by session players, while other songs combine the voices of several members with outside musicians.
There were exceptions. Nesmith produced two sessions for the album, and Peter Tork played guitar on those recordings. Nesmith also contributed “Papa Gene’s Blues” and “Sweet Young Thing”, giving the debut a direct connection to the songwriting and musical ambitions that would become increasingly important to the group.
The circumstances were rooted in the way The Monkees came into existence.
In late 1965, producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider developed a television series about a young garage band, drawing inspiration from Richard Lester’s Beatles film A Hard Day’s Night. An open casting call produced 437 applicants before Dolenz, Jones, Nesmith and Tork were selected in September 1965.
The four performers came from distinctly different backgrounds. Dolenz was an actor and musician, Jones had already established himself as a British singer and stage performer, Nesmith was a recording artist and songwriter, and Tork had emerged from the Greenwich Village folk scene.
Music became a central part of the television project almost immediately. Songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart were brought in to provide material for the pilot, while music executive Don Kirshner was subsequently appointed musical supervisor. Kirshner’s access to Brill Building songwriters gave the production a large pool of professional material from which to build the group’s recorded catalogue.
Boyce and Hart ultimately produced most of the debut album, alongside Jack Keller, while Nesmith handled his two sessions. The album was recorded in Los Angeles between July 5 and July 25, 1966.
The opening track, “(Theme From) The Monkees”, established the group’s television identity, while “Last Train to Clarksville” provided its commercial breakthrough. Released as a single on August 16, 1966, “Last Train to Clarksville” reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
The album’s other songs revealed the breadth of the songwriting pool being used to construct the Monkees’ early sound. David Gates wrote “Saturday’s Child”, while Gerry Goffin and Carole King contributed “Take a Giant Step” and, with Russ Titelman, “I’ll Be True to You”. Nesmith supplied “Papa Gene’s Blues”, while “Tomorrow’s Gonna Be Another Day” was written by Boyce and Steve Venet.
The musicians behind the sessions included some of Los Angeles’ most accomplished studio players. James Burton, Glen Campbell, Al Casey, Hal Blaine, Larry Knechtel and Larry Taylor are among the names credited on the album, placing the debut within the same Los Angeles recording culture that was shaping a large part of American pop music in the mid-1960s.
The tension between the television concept and the musicians’ own ambitions would not remain static. Nesmith and Tork increasingly pushed for greater creative control, and the Monkees’ later recordings would feature substantially more participation from the members themselves.
For the 60th anniversary, the original album remains a document of a very specific moment in pop history: a television experiment that became a genuine recording phenomenon, even before the four men behind the name had been given full control of the music.
The Monkees would eventually prove they could be more than the characters created for television. Their debut, however, preserves the fascinating beginning, when the voices belonged to the four Monkees but much of the music came from an entirely different room.
Tracklisting
Side One
“(Theme From) The Monkees”
“Saturday’s Child”
“I Wanna Be Free”
“Tomorrow’s Gonna Be Another Day”
“Papa Gene’s Blues”
“Take a Giant Step”
Side Two
“Last Train to Clarksville”
“This Just Doesn’t Seem to Be My Day”
“Let’s Dance On”
“I’ll Be True to You”
“Sweet Young Thing”
“Gonna Buy Me a Dog”
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