Monkee History

The Monkees were created as the American Beatle band for a TV show. Thought was given to hiring a real band such as the Lovin' Spoonful or The Byrds, but creaters Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider thought that amateurs would work better for what they had in mind. They put out and ad in the Variety paper calling for four insane boys. And 4 boys were brought together, Mike Nesmith, Peter Tork, Micky Dolenz, and Davy Jones. They were to be turned into a rock sensation in a 6 week period. Mike and Peter already played instruments and were also songwriters, but Micky learned to play the drums for the group and Davy played the tambourine and maracas, while all four boys sang.
   The Monkees show premiered on Septemeber 12th, 1966 and it was TV's first rock 'n roll sitcom. But even though their show was very popular with the young audiences, unfortunatly they found tough competition with TV's "Gunsmoke". So NBC dropped the show rather than moving it to a different time, so the show was short lived only having two seasons with 58 episodes altogether. The Monkees then did a movie called "Head" in 1968, which was co-written by Bob Rafelson and pal Jack Nicholson. After Head's release, Peter was the first Monkee to buy out his contract and pursue a solo career.
     But then after doing a couple more albums and some concerts Mike left the group in 1969. Also the group did return to televsion one more time in 1969 for a special called "33 1/3 Revolutions per Monkee". But after Mike left Micky and Davy stayed to do the album "Dolenz, Jones, Boyce and Hart" (with musicians Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart) and also did some touring with them. After that Micky and Davy also went their seprate ways. And occasionally you would see one or two of the Monkees guest starring on different sitcoms.
    In 1985 they, except for Mike, got back together for their 20th Reuion tour. And the three got back together again in the 1996 for their 30th Reuion.
   Also 1996 all four did an ABC Special called "Hey, Hey We're The Monkees" and put out an album called "Justus" which was the only album written, produced, and recorded by all four Monkees entirely by themselves.
    The Monkees put out over 20 albums, with 4 of them being chart topping albums at number 1, they had 3 number 1 hit singles, and 11 top forty songs, plus received Grammy nominations and won two Emmys for their great work on the show together.
    Today Davy, Micky, and Peter are still touring together and sometimes they do solo concerts as well, but Mike doesn't go with them for he doesn't like touring.