THE MONKEES: Hey, Hey, We're The Monkees

1996 Documentary

The Monkees were an American rock and pop band originally active between 1966 and 1970, with reunion albums and tours in the decades that followed. Their original line-up consisted of the American actor/musicians Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork with English actor/singer Davy Jones. The group was conceived in 1965 by television producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider specifically for the situation comedy series of the same name, which aired from 1966 to 1968. Music credited to the band was released on LP, as well as being included in the show.

While the sitcom was a mostly straight-forward affair, the music production quickly generated tension and controversy. Music supervisor Don Kirshner was dissatisfied with the actor/musicians' musical abilities, and he limited their involvement during the recording process, instead using a stable of professional songwriters and studio musicians to craft multiple hit albums and singles. Upset with the arrangement and facing public backlash for not playing on the recordings, the band members soon gained full control over the recording process. For two albums they mostly performed as a group, but within a year, each member was pursuing his own interests under the Monkees name. By the end of 1968, they were once again a group in name only, the show had been canceled, and their motion picture and TV special had both flopped. Tork left the band soon after, followed by Nesmith a year later, and the Monkees officially broke up in 1970.

A revival of interest in the television show came in 1986, leading to a series of official reunion tours, a TV special, and four new full-length records, spanning the next 35 years (though these rarely comprised all four members performing together). With Jones' death in 2012 and Tork's in 2019, Dolenz and Nesmith were left to embark on a farewell tour in 2021, finishing shortly before Nesmith's death at the end of the year.

Dolenz described The Monkees as initially being "a TV show about an imaginary band ... that wanted to be the Beatles ... [but] was never successful". Ironically, the success of the show led to the actor-musicians becoming one of the most successful bands of the 1960s. The Monkees have sold more than 75 million records worldwide, making them one of the biggest-selling groups of all time with international hits, including "Last Train to Clarksville", "I'm a Believer", "Pleasant Valley Sunday", and "Daydream Believer", and four chart-topping albums. Newspapers and magazines reported that the Monkees outsold the Beatles and the Rolling Stones combined in 1967, but Nesmith admitted in his autobiography Infinite Tuesday that it was a lie that he told a reporter