Editing The Monkees (section)

=== Independence ===
[[File:The Monkees 1967.jpg|thumb|The Monkees in 1965|left]]

====Conflict with Kirshner====
In early 1967, controversy concerning the Monkees' studio abilities arose. Dolenz told a reporter that [[The Wrecking Crew (music)|the Wrecking Crew]] provided the backing tracks for the first two Monkees albums, and that his position as drummer was simply because a Monkee had to learn to play the drums, and he only knew the guitar.<ref name=dolenz>{{cite book|last=Dolenz|first=Micky|title=I'm a Believer: My Life of Monkees, Music, and Madness|year=2004|page=66|publisher=Taylor Trade Publications}}</ref> In the January 28, 1967, issue of ''Saturday Evening Post'' an article quoted Nesmith railing against the music creation process. "Do you know how debilitating it is to sit up and have to duplicate somebody else's records?" he asked. "Tell the world we don't record our own music."<ref>Lewis, Richard Warren. "When Four Nice Boys Go Ape!" ''The Saturday Evening Post'', January 28, 1967, p. 74.</ref>

The band members were displeased that the music publishing company would not allow them to play their own instruments on their records or to use more of their own material. These complaints intensified when Kirshner moved track recording from California to New York, leaving the band out of the musical process entirely until they were called upon to add their vocals to the completed tracks. Nesmith, when asked about the situation by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine, said, "The [TV show's] producers [in Hollywood] backed us and David went along. None of us could have fought the battles we did [with the music publishers] without the explicit support of the show's producers".<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Greene|first=Andy|title=Exclusive: Michael Nesmith Remembers Davy Jones|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/exclusive-michael-nesmith-remembers-davy-jones-20120308#ixzz1v8CRGRDd|magazine=Rolling Stone|access-date=May 17, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120530062943/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/exclusive-michael-nesmith-remembers-davy-jones-20120308#ixzz1v8CRGRDd|archive-date=May 30, 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> 
[[File:The Monkees March 1967.jpg|thumb|Publicity shot in 1967]]

On January 16, 1967, the Monkees held their first recording session as a fully functioning, self-contained band. The band recorded an early version of Nesmith's self-composed top 40 hit single "The Girl I Knew Somewhere", along with "[[All of Your Toys]]" and "She's So Far Out, She's In".<ref name="SandovalPage82">Sandoval (2005), p. 82.</ref> 

Also in January, Kirshner released the band's second album of songs that used session musicians, ''More of the Monkees'', without the band's knowledge. The Monkees were annoyed at not having even been told of the release in advance, at having their opinions on the track selection ignored, and at Kirshner's self-congratulatory liner notes. The band was also displeased because of the cover photo, which was a composite of photographs taken for a [[J.C. Penney]] clothing advertisement. Indeed, the Monkees were not even given a copy of the album; they had to buy it from a record store.<ref>{{cite AV media notes |title=More of the Monkees (Super Deluxe Edition) |last=Sandoval |first=Andrew |author-link=Andrew Sandoval |publisher=[[Rhino Entertainment|Rhino Records]] |date=2017 |id=R2 560125}}</ref>

The climax of the conflict between Kirshner and the band was an intense argument among Nesmith, Kirshner and [[Colgems]] lawyer Herb Moelis, which took place at the Beverly Hills Hotel in January 1967. Kirshner had presented the group with royalty checks and gold records. Nesmith had responded with an ultimatum, demanding a change in the way the Monkees' music was chosen and recorded. Moelis reminded Nesmith that he was under contract. The confrontation ended with Nesmith punching a hole in a wall and saying, "That could have been your face!" However, each of the members, including Nesmith, accepted the $250,000 royalty checks.<ref name="SandovalPage80"/>

Soon after, Colgems and the Monkees reached an agreement not to release material directly created by the group together with unrelated Kirshner-produced material. Kirshner immediately violated this agreement in early February 1967, when he released "[[A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You]]", composed and written by [[Neil Diamond]], as a single with an early version of "She Hangs Out", a song recorded in New York with Davy Jones's vocals, as the B-side. (This single was only released in Canada and was withdrawn after a couple of weeks.<ref name="Discography">{{cite web|last=Sandoval |first=Andrew |title=Discography |url=https://www.monkees.com/read/discography/singles.php |publisher=Official Monkees Website |access-date=May 20, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302234847/http://www.monkees.com/read/discography/singles.php |archive-date=March 2, 2012 }}</ref>) Kirshner was consequently dismissed from the project.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ultimateclassicrock.com/more-of-the-monkees-anniversary/|title=Why Michael Nesmith Hated 'More of the Monkees'|first=Bryan |last=Rolli|date=January 10, 2022|website=Ultimate Classic Rock}}</ref>

Propelled by the band's second single, "I'm a Believer" b/w "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone", ''More of the Monkees'' became the band's biggest-selling LP. The album spent 70 weeks on the Billboard charts, staying No. 1 for 18 weeks<ref>{{cite web |last1=Swanson |first1=Dave |title=50 Years Ago: The Monkees Storm the Charts With Their Second Album, 'More of the Monkees' |url=https://ultimateclassicrock.com/more-of-the-monkees/ |website=Ultimate Classic Rock |date=January 9, 2017 |access-date=October 18, 2019 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191018235437/https://ultimateclassicrock.com/more-of-the-monkees/ |archive-date=October 18, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> and becoming the third-highest-selling album of the 1960s.<ref>{{cite web|last=Goldmine1|title=More Monkees from Rhino Records|url=https://www.goldminemag.com/news/monkees-rhino-records|access-date=November 9, 2020|website=Goldmine Magazine: Record Collector & Music Memorabilia|date=November 30, 2017 |language=en}}</ref> "I'm a Believer" was written by Neil Diamond. The Monkees' recording of the single hit the number-one spot on the U.S. [[Billboard Hot 100|''Billboard'' Hot 100]] chart for the week ending December 31, 1966, remaining there for seven weeks.<ref name="bb2008">{{cite magazine |title=The Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs |url=https://www.billboard.com/bbcom/specials/hot100/charts/top100-titles-50.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080913210007/http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/specials/hot100/charts/top100-titles-50.shtml |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 13, 2008 |magazine=Billboard |access-date=March 6, 2012}}</ref> "I'm a Believer" became the biggest-selling single for all of 1967.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mprnews.org/story/2017/01/09/monkees-hit-number-one-50-years-ago|title=The Monkees' 'I'm a Believer' was on top 50 years ago|date=January 9, 2017|website=MPR News}}</ref>

The Monkees' UK tour in 1967 received a chilly reception; the front pages of several UK and international music papers proclaimed that the group members did not always play their own instruments or sing the backing vocals in the studio. They were derisively dubbed the "[[Pre-fabrication|Pre-Fab]] Four" and the ''[[Sunday Mirror]]'' called them a "disgrace to the pop world".<ref>{{cite news|last=Bentley|first=Jack|title=A Disgrace to the Pop World|work=[[Sunday Mirror]]|date=January 15, 1967|page=29}}</ref> However, [[George Harrison]] praised the Monkees' self-produced musical attempts.<ref name="baker"/> Peter Tork was later one of the musicians on Harrison's album ''[[Wonderwall Music]]'', playing [[Paul McCartney]]'s five-string [[banjo]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Leigh |first=Spencer |title=Love Me Do to Love Me Don't: Beatles on Record |page=233 |date=2016 |publisher=McNidder & Grace |isbn=9780857161352}}</ref> Nesmith attended the Beatles' recording session for "[[A Day in the Life]]" at Abbey Road Studios. At that time, he reportedly asked John Lennon, "Do you think we're a cheap imitation of the Beatles, your movies and your records?" Lennon replied, "I think you're the greatest comic talent since the [[Marx Brothers]]. I've never missed one of your programs".<ref name="baker"/>

==== ''Headquarters'' and ''Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.'' ====
In February 1967, after Kirshner was dismissed as musical supervisor, Nesmith hired [[Chip Douglas]] to produce the Monkees' next album, ''Headquarters''.<ref name="SandovalPage80">Sandoval (2005), p. 80.</ref> This album was the first on which the Monkees primarily played their own instruments, with exceptions for most bass and horn parts. Douglas handled music direction, engineered recordings, and played bass on most tracks. ''Headquarters'' and its follow-up, ''Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.'', provided much of the music for the second season of the Monkees' television series.{{cn|date=May 2025}}

In March 1967, "The Girl I Knew Somewhere", written by Nesmith and performed by Dolenz, Nesmith, Tork, and bassist John London, was released as the B-side to "A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You". The A-side peaked at No. 2 on the charts, while the B-side reached No. 39.<ref name="SandovalPage96">Sandoval (2005), p. 96.</ref>

Released in May 1967, ''Headquarters'' contained no U.S. singles but became the Monkees' third consecutive No. 1 album. With a country-folk-rock sound, the album reflected a departure from the pop style of their earlier works under Kirshner. According to Andrew Sandoval, the album topped the charts on May 24, 1967, but was displaced by the Beatles' ''[[Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band]]'' the following week, holding the No. 2 spot for 11 weeks during the "Summer of Love". The track "Randy Scouse Git", written and sung by Dolenz, was released internationally as "Alternate Title" (owing to [[Git (slang)|the controversial nature of its original title]]) and became a hit, reaching No. 2 in the UK and Norway.<ref name="SandovalPage116">Sandoval (2005), p. 116.</ref>

Tork's "For Pete's Sake" was used as the closing theme for the Monkees' television show. Nesmith contributed songs like "Sunny Girlfriend", incorporating pedal steel guitar, and "You Told Me", with a banjo intro by Tork that parodied the Beatles' "[[Taxman]]".<ref name="SandovalPage97">Sandoval (2005), p. 97.</ref> Other notable tracks included "You Just May Be the One", "Shades of Gray", "Forget that Girl", and "No Time". The band wrote six of the album's 12 tracks, along with two experimental pieces, "Band 6" and "Zilch".<ref name="SandovalPage101">Sandoval (2005), p. 101.</ref>

The ''Los Angeles Times'' praised the album, stating, "The Monkees Upgrade Album Quality" and "The Monkees are getting better. ''Headquarters'' has more interesting songs and a better quality level [than previous albums]... None of the tracks is a throwaway... The improvement trend is laudable."<ref name="SandovalPage109">Sandoval (2005), p. 109.</ref>

The collaborative approach on ''Headquarters'' was short-lived. In the 2007 Rhino reissue of ''Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.'', Nesmith said: <blockquote>Everybody in the press and in the hippie movement had got us into their target window as being illegitimate and not worthy of consideration as a musical force [or] certainly any kind of cultural force. We were under siege; wherever we went there was such resentment for us. We were constantly mocked and humiliated by the press. We were really gettin' beat up pretty good. We all knew what was going on inside. Kirshner had been purged. We'd gone to try to make ''Headquarters'' and found out that it was only marginally okay and that our better move was to just go back to the original songwriting and song-making strategy of the first albums except with a clear indication of how [the music] came to be... The rabid element and the hatred that was engendered is almost impossible to describe. It lingers to this day among people my own age.{{cn|date=May 2025}}</blockquote> 

Tork disagreed with Nesmith's assessment of ''Headquarters'', stating, "I don't think the ''Pisces'' album was as groovy to listen to as ''Headquarters''. Technically it was much better, but I think it suffers for that reason."<ref name="SandovalPage142">Sandoval (2005), p. 142.</ref> Tork favored working as a unified band, but Dolenz soon lost interest in drumming. "Dolenz was 'incapable of repeating a triumph,'" Tork commented in a DVD release of the second season. Producer Chip Douglas noted Dolenz's drumming required extensive editing, calling it "shaky".<ref name="SandovalPage108">Sandoval (2005), p. 108.</ref>

By late 1967, the band members pursued divergent musical directions. Nesmith gravitated toward country-rock, while Jones leaned into Broadway-style performances. ''Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.'', released in November 1967, marked a return to heavy use of session musicians, including the [[The Wrecking Crew (music)|Wrecking Crew]], [[Louie Shelton]], [[Glen Campbell]], [[Stephen Stills]], and [[Neil Young]]. Despite this, the Monkees retained creative control over song selection and production.{{cn|date=May 2025}}

''Pisces'' was their fourth consecutive No. 1 album, holding the top spot for five weeks.<ref name="SandovalPage142" /> The album featured hits like "Pleasant Valley Sunday" (No. 3) and "Words" (No. 11).<ref name="SandovalPage116" /><ref name="SandovalPage302">Sandoval (2005), p. 302.</ref> It also included early use of the Moog synthesizer on tracks like "Daily Nightly" and "Star Collector". Nesmith's "What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round?" became a milestone in the development of country-rock.<ref name="SandovalPage118">Sandoval (2005), p. 118.</ref> Nesmith reflected, ""One of the things that I really felt was honest was country-rock. I wanted to move the Monkees more into that because ... if we get closer to country music, we'll get closer to blues, and country blues, and so forth. ... It had a lot of un-country things in it: a familiar change from a I major to a VI minor—those kinds of things. So it was a little kind of a new wave country song. It didn't sound like the country songs of the time, which was Buck Owens."<ref name="SandovalPage118" />

Their next single, "Daydream Believer", with a piano intro by Tork, reached No. 1. Its B-side, "[[Goin' Down (The Monkees song)|Goin' Down]]", featured Nesmith and Tork on guitars and Dolenz on lead vocals. The Monkees simultaneously held No. 1 positions on the singles and album charts.<ref name="SandovalPage143">Sandoval (2005), p. 143.</ref>

Both ''Headquarters'' and ''Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.'' returned to the charts during the Monkees' 1986 reunion, remaining there for 17 weeks.<ref name="Discography"/>

==== ''The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees'' ====

No longer desiring to work as a group, the Monkees dropped Chip Douglas as a producer, and starting in November 1967, they largely produced their own sessions.<ref name="SandovalPage142" /> Although credited to the whole band, the songs were mostly solo efforts.<ref name="SandovalPage148">Sandoval (2005), p. 148.</ref> In a couple of cases, Boyce and Hart had returned from the first two albums to produce, but credit was given to the Monkees due to contractual requirements.<ref name="SandovalPage152">Sandoval (2005), p. 152.</ref>

Propelled by the hit singles "Daydream Believer" and "[[Valleri]]", along with Nesmith's self-penned top 40 hit "Tapioca Tundra", ''[[The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees]]'' reached No. 3 on the Billboard charts shortly after it was released in April 1968.<ref name="SandovalPage183">Sandoval (2005), p. 183.</ref> It was the first album released after NBC announced they were not renewing ''The Monkees'' for a third season. The album cover—a quaint collage of items in a knickknack shelf—was chosen over the Monkees' objections. It was the last Monkees' album to be released in separate, dedicated mono and stereo mixes.<ref name="SandovalPage183" /> During the 1986 reunion, it returned to the Billboard charts for 11 weeks.<ref name="Discography"/>

==== 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>