Editing The Monkees (section)

=== Later years and separation ===
[[File:Monkees Television special 1969.jpg|thumb|1969 television special ''[[33⅓ Revolutions per Monkee|33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee]]''|left]]

==== Tork's resignation, ''Instant Replay'' and ''The Monkees Present'' ====
{{refimprovesect|date=May 2025}}
Tensions within the group were increasing. Tork, citing exhaustion, quit the band by buying out the last four years of his Monkees contract at $150,000 per year. Tork departed shortly after the band's September–October Far East tour in December 1968 and after the band completed work on their 1969 NBC television special, ''[[33⅓ Revolutions Per Monkee]]'' (which rehashed many of the ideas from ''Head'', only with the Monkees playing a strangely second-string role). In the DVD commentary for the television special, Dolenz noted that after filming was complete, Nesmith gave Tork a gold watch as a going-away present, engraved "From the guys down at work." Most of the songs from the ''33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee'' TV Special were not officially released until over 40 years later, on the 2010 and 2011 Rhino Handmade Deluxe boxed sets of ''Head'' and ''Instant Replay''.

In February 1969, the Monkees' seventh album, ''[[Instant Replay (The Monkees album)|Instant Replay]],'' without Tork's involvement beyond playing guitar on "I Won't Be the Same Without Her", was released, which reached No. 32 on the charts,<ref name="SandovalPage226">Sandoval (2005), p. 226.</ref> and No. 45 in Canada.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/028020/f2/nlc008388.5975.pdf|title=RPM Top 50 Albums - April 14, 1969|website=Collectionscanada.gc.ca|access-date=October 23, 2023}}</ref> The single from the album was "[[Tear Drop City]]", which peaked at No. 56 on the U.S. Billboard chart, No. 27 on the Canadian chart,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/028020/f2/nlc008388.5923.pdf|title=RPM Top 100 Singles - March 31, 1969|website=Collectionscanada.gc.ca|access-date=October 23, 2023}}</ref> and No. 34 on the Australian chart.<ref name="SandovalPage227">Sandoval (2005), p. 227.</ref> According to Rhino Handmade's 2011 Deluxe Edition reissue of this album, Davy Jones told ''[[Melody Maker]]'', "Half of the songs were recorded over the last three years, but there are also about six new ones." The Monkees wanted to please the original 1966 fans by offering up new recordings of some previously unreleased older styled songs, as well as gain a new audience with what they considered a more mature sound. Nesmith continued in his country-rock vein after offering straight ahead rock and experimental songs on the two prior albums.

Dolenz contributed the biggest and longest Monkees' production, "Shorty Blackwell", a song celebrating his cat.<ref name="SandovalPage161">Sandoval (2005), p. 161.</ref> Dolenz called it his "feeble attempt at something to do with ''Sgt. Pepper.''"<ref name="SandovalPage161" /> Jones contributed an electric guitar rocker, "You and I". Both Jones and Dolenz continued their role of singing on the pop songs. Lyrically, it has a theme of being one of the Monkees' most melancholy albums.

[[File:Monkees 1969 Joey Bishop Show.jpg|thumb|The Monkees (without Tork) performing on ''[[The Joey Bishop Show (talk show)|The Joey Bishop Show]]'', backed by the Goodtimers, in 1969. The images of Jones and Dolenz were re-used for the cover art of the 1970 Monkees album ''[[Changes (The Monkees album)|Changes]]''.]]Throughout 1969 the trio appeared as guests on television programs such as ''[[The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour]]'', ''[[The Johnny Cash Show]]'', ''[[Hollywood Squares]]'', and ''[[Laugh-In]]'' (Jones had also appeared on ''Laugh-In'' separate from the group). The Monkees also had a contractual obligation to appear in several television commercials with [[Bugs Bunny]] for [[Kool-Aid]] drink mix as well as Post cereal box singles.

In April 1969, the single "Someday Man" b/w "Listen to the Band" was released,<ref name="SandovalPage253">Sandoval (2005), p. 253.</ref> which had the unique distinction of the B-side, a Nesmith-composed country-rock song, charting higher (No. 63) than the Jones-sung A-side (No. 81).<ref name="Discography" /><ref name="SandovalPage253" /> In Canada, "Someday Man" was No. 74<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/028020/f2/nlc008388.6006.pdf| title=RPM Top 100 Singles - May 19, 1969}}</ref> and "Listen to the Band" reached No. 53.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/028020/f2/nlc008388.5928.pdf| title=RPM Top 100 Singles - July 7, 1969}}</ref>

The final album with Michael Nesmith from the Monkees' original incarnation was their eighth album, ''[[The Monkees Present]]'', released in October 1969, which peaked at No. 100 on the Billboard charts.<ref name="SandovalPage253" /> It included the Nesmith composed country-rock singles "Listen to the Band" and "Good Clean Fun" (released in September 1969)<ref name="SandovalPage251">Sandoval (2005), p. 251.</ref>(No. 80 Canada<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/028020/f2/nlc008388.6092.pdf| title=RPM Top 100 Singles - October 18, 1969}}</ref>). Other notable songs include the Dolenz composition "Little Girl", which featured Louie Shelton on electric guitar, joining Micky on acoustic guitar,<ref name="SandovalPage249">Sandoval (2005), p. 249.</ref> along with "Mommy and Daddy" (B-side to the "Good Clean Fun" single) in which he sang about America's treatment of the Native Americans and drug abuse, and in an earlier take, released on Rhino Handmade's 2011 Deluxe Edition of ''Instant Replay'', sang about JFK's assassination and the Vietnam war. 

In the summer of 1969, the three remaining Monkees embarked on a tour with the backing of the soul band Sam and the Goodtimers. Concerts for this tour were longer sets than their earlier performances tours, with many shows running over two hours. Although the tour was met with some positive critical reception (''Billboard'' in particular praised it), other critics were not favorable of the mixing of the Monkees' pop music with the Goodtimers' R&B approach. Toward the end of the tour, some dates were canceled due to poor ticket sales. The tour failed to re-establish the band commercially, with no single entering the Top 40 in 1969. Dolenz remarked that the tour "was like kicking a dead horse. The phenomenon had peaked".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.monkeesconcerts.com/1969-north-american-tour.html |title=Monkees 1969 Tour - The Monkees Live Almanac |publisher=Monkeesconcerts.com |access-date=August 19, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150816110832/http://www.monkeesconcerts.com/1969-north-american-tour.html |archive-date=August 16, 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== Nesmith's resignation, ''Changes'' and disbandment ====
On April 14, 1970, Nesmith joined Dolenz and Jones for the last time as part of the original incarnation of the Monkees to film a [[Kool-Aid]] commercial. The commercial featured the trio throwing [[Nerf]] balls around a mock living room.<ref name="SandovalPage267">Sandoval (2005), p. 267.</ref> Nesmith left the group to continue recording songs with his own country-rock group called Michael Nesmith & [[the First National Band]], which he had started recording with on February 10, 1970.<ref name="SandovalPage263">Sandoval (2005), p. 263.</ref>

Nesmith's departure left Dolenz and Jones to record the bubblegum pop album ''[[Changes (The Monkees album)|Changes]]'' as the ninth and final album by the Monkees released during its original incarnation. By this time, Colgems was hardly putting any effort into the project, and they sent Dolenz and Jones to New York for the ''Changes'' sessions, to be produced by [[Jeff Barry]]. In comments for the liner notes of the 1994 re-release of ''Changes'', Jones said that he felt they had been tricked into recording an "[[Andy Kim (singer)|Andy Kim]] album" under the Monkees name.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}} The album spawned the single "Oh My My" (US #98), which was accompanied by a music film promo (produced/directed by Dolenz). Dolenz contributed one of his own compositions, "Midnight Train", which was used in the re-runs of the Monkees TV series. The "Oh My My" b/w "I Love You Better" single from the ''Changes'' album was the last single issued under the Monkees name in the United States until 1986.<ref name="SandovalPage266">Sandoval (2005), p. 266.</ref> Originally released in June 1970,<ref name="SandovalPage270">Sandoval (2005), p. 270.</ref> ''Changes'' failed to chart in Billboard's Top 200 until the Monkees' 1986 reunion, when it stayed on the charts for four weeks (reaching #152).<ref name="Discography"/>

September 22, 1970 marked the final recording session by the Monkees before the band broke up. On that date, Jones and Dolenz recorded "Do It in the Name of Love" and "Lady Jane".<ref name="SandovalPage276">Sandoval (2005), p. 276.</ref> The single was not mixed until February 19, 1971, and was released later that year as a single.<ref name="SandovalPage84"/> The two remaining Monkees then lost the rights to use the name in several countries, the U.S. included. The single was not credited to the Monkees in the U.S., but to a misspelled "Mickey Dolenz and Davy Jones",<ref name="SandovalPage84"/> although in Japan it was issued under the Monkees' name.

Both Jones and Dolenz pursued careers as solo artists in the years following the original breakup of the Monkees. However, Jones and Dolenz also toured as a duo in the 1970s.<ref>https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/the-monkees-micky-dolenz-thought-seemed-stupid-tour-just-mike-nesmith.html/</ref>