Editing The Monkees (section)

==== Beyond television and ''Head'' ====
''The Monkees'' was cancelled in 1968.<ref name="downfall" />

Also in 1968, the Monkees starred in ''[[Head (film)|Head]]'', an American [[satire (film and television)|satirical]] [[Musical film|musical]] [[adventure film]] written and produced by [[Jack Nicholson]] and [[Bob Rafelson]] and directed by Rafelson.<ref name="Head">{{cite web|url= https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/20082/head#credits |title=Head|work=[[Turner Classic Movies]]|access-date=December 8, 2024}}</ref>

The plot and peak moments of the film came together at an [[Ojai, California]], resort where the Monkees, Rafelson, and Nicholson brainstormed into a tape recorder,<ref name="LATimes">{{Cite news|last=King|first=Susan|title=A Monkees 'Head' trip|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=November 12, 2008|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-nov-12-et-monkees12-story.html|access-date=April 30, 2010}}</ref> reportedly with the aid of a quantity of [[Cannabis (drug)|marijuana]]. Nicholson then took the tapes and used them as the basis for his screenplay, which according to Rafelson he structured while under the influence of LSD.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/apr/28/monkees-head-jack-nicholson-interview|first=Dorian|last=Lynksey|title=The Monkees' Head: 'Our fans couldn't even see it'|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=April 28, 2011|access-date=May 26, 2016}}</ref> When the band learned that they would not be allowed to direct themselves or to receive screenwriting credit, Dolenz, Jones, and Nesmith staged a one-day walkout, leaving Tork the only Monkee on the set the first day.{{sfn|Baker|Czarnota|Hoga|1986|pages=91–102}} The strike ended after the first day when the studio agreed to a larger percentage share of the film's net for the group, but the incident damaged the Monkees' relationship with Rafelson and [[Bert Schneider]] and would effectively end their professional relationship with the producers.{{sfn|Baker|Czarnota|Hoga|1986|pages=91–102}}

The film was the antithesis of ''The Monkees'' television show. Rafelson and Nicholson's "Ditty Diego-War Chant" (recited at the start of the film by the group) ruthlessly parodies Boyce and Hart's "Monkees Theme". A sparse advertising campaign (with no mention of the Monkees) hurt any chances of the film doing well, and it played briefly in half-filled theaters. In the DVD commentary, Nesmith said that everyone associated with the Monkees "had gone crazy" by this time. They were each using the platform of the Monkees to push their own disparate career goals, to the detriment of the Monkees project. Nesmith added that ''Head'' was Rafelson and Nicholson's intentional effort to "kill" the Monkees, so that they would no longer be bothered with the matter.<ref name="SandovalPage219">Sandoval (2005), p. 219.</ref>

A poor audience response at an August 1968 screening in Los Angeles forced the producers to edit the picture from its original 110-minute length. The 86-minute ''Head'' premiered in New York City on November 6, 1968; the film later debuted in Hollywood on November 20. It was not a commercial success. This was in part because ''Head'' comprehensively demolished the group's carefully groomed public image while the [[Counterculture of the 1960s|counterculture]] audience they had been reaching for rejected the Monkees' efforts out of hand. Receiving mixed critical reviews and virtually non-existent box office receipts, the film succeeded in alienating the band's teenage fanbase while failing to attract a more adult audience.<ref name="LATimes"/> Rafelson and Schneider severed all ties to the band amid the bitterness that ensued over the commercial failure of ''Head''. At the time, Rafelson told the press, "I grooved on those four in very special ways while at the same time thinking they had absolutely no talent."<ref name="SandovalPage219" />

The [[Head (The Monkees album)|film's soundtrack album]] reached No. 45 on the Billboard charts<ref name="SandovalPage210">Sandoval (2005), p. 210.</ref> and No. 24 in Canada.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/028020/f2/nlc008388.5903.pdf| title=RPM Top 50 Albums - February 17, 1969}}</ref> ''[[PopMatters]]'' described ''Head'' as "a hypnogogic hallucination of a 60's [[pop music|pop]] record" whose composition encompassed [[musique concrète]] pieces and six new songs in the genres of [[psychedelic music|psychedelic]], [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] and [[lo-fi music|lo-fi]] [[rock music|rock]].<ref name=PM>{{cite web |url=https://www.popmatters.com/148574-getting-head-2495952575.html |title="GETTING" HEAD… THE MONKEES' LAST GREAT ALBUM |author=Staff |date=October 31, 2011  |website=[[PopMatters]] |access-date=January 29, 2023}}</ref> It was the first Monkees album to not include a song written by [[Boyce and Hart|Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart]].<ref name=AM>[{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r3034|pure_url=yes}} AllMusic review]</ref> Some of the album showcases the songwriting skills of band members, particularly Tork, whose [[acid rock]] song "Long Title: Do I Have to Do This All Over Again?" and the "Eastern-flavored" song "Can You Dig It?" were described by ''[[AllMusic]]'' as being "not only among the best of the six original compositions on the soundtrack, but also among his finest Monkees offerings, period."<ref name=AM/>

The album had a [[mylar]] cover to give it a mirror-like appearance, so that the person looking at the cover would see his own head, a play on the album title ''Head''. Peter Tork said, "That was something special... [Jack] Nicholson coordinated the record, made it up from the soundtrack. He made it different from the movie. There's a line in the movie where [Frank] Zappa says, 'That's pretty white.' Then there's another line in the movie that was not juxtaposed in the movie, but Nicholson put them together in the [soundtrack album], when Mike says, 'And the same thing goes for Christmas'... that's funny... very different from the movie... that was very important and wonderful that he assembled the record differently from the movie... It was a different artistic experience."<ref name="SandovalPage204">Sandoval (2005), p. 204.</ref>

Released in October 1968, the single from the album, "The Porpoise Song", is a psychedelic pop song written by [[Goffin and King]], with lead vocals from Micky Dolenz and backing vocals from Davy Jones, and it reached No. 62 on the Billboard charts<ref name="SandovalPage207">Sandoval (2005), p. 207.</ref> and No. 26 on the Canadian [[RPM (magazine)|RPM charts]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/028020/f2/nlc008388.5821.pdf| title=RPM Top 100 Singles - November 2, 1968}}</ref>

''Head'' developed a [[cult following]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.openculture.com/2022/02/how-the-1968-psychedelic-film-head-destroyed-the-monkees-became-a-cult-classic.html|title=How the 1968 Psychedelic Film Head Destroyed the Monkees & Became a Cult Classic |website=openculture.com|last=Mills |first=Ted |date=February 21, 2022}}</ref> In 2013, ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' ranked the album at number 25 in their list of "The 25 Greatest Soundtracks of All Time".<ref>{{Cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/lists/the-25-greatest-soundtracks-of-all-time-20130829/head-1968-19691231 |last1=Dolan |first1=Jon |last2=Hermes |first2=Will |last3=Hoard |first3=Christian |last4=Sheffield |first4=Rob |title=The 25 Greatest Soundtracks of All Time |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |date=August 29, 2013}}</ref>