The Monkees

The Monkees' first album was a huge success, following on the number one single "Last Train to Clarksville." The Monkees spent 78 weeks on the Billboard chart including an astounding 13 weeks at number one. The record wasn't only a commercial juggernaut, it also stands as one of the great debuts of all time, and while the record and the group have faced criticism from rock purists through the ages, it stands the test of time perfectly well, sounding as alive and as much fun 40 years later. Prefabricated? Yes. After a fast buck? Yes. Exhilarating? Yes! Fab? Definitely! The music may have been created by studio cats instead of the band themselves but the pros weren't merely phoning it in. Listen to the aggressive guitars on "Saturday's Child," the raw romp of "Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day," or the cascading wall of guitars and fiddles on "Sweet Young Thing," and you know they weren't just padding their bank accounts. They were playing some real rock & roll and you can credit the producers for that. Producers Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart aren't craftsmen on the level of Phil Spector (who was actually approached to produce the band but probably laughed the Monkees' team right out the door), but they knew how to craft razor-sharp and exciting pop tunes with lots of spark, soul, and the occasional psychedelic touch.

And they knew how to get great vocals from their group. While the Monkees themselves didn't do much more than sing, the singing they did was first-rate. You'd be hard-pressed to find a better pop/rock vocalist than Micky Dolenz; his work on "Take a Giant Step" and "Last Train to Clarksville" is thrilling and bursting with life. The other lead vocalist, Davy Jones, thankfully doesn't get a chance to show off his full range of annoyingly whimsical mannerisms; Boyce and Hart keep him under wraps and his vocals on "I Wanna Be Free" and "I'll Be True to You" are achingly sweet, even a little soulful in a very British way. Boyce and Hart weren't the only great producers involved with the record, as a listen to "Papa Gene's Blues" and "Sweet Young Thing" show that Mike Nesmith also knew how to produce great pop music, despite what Don Kirshner may have thought. The various producers, supervisors, and coordinators were also savants when it came to both writing (in Boyce, Hart, and Nesmith's case) and picking songs for the group. Indeed, the only songs that feel like filler are the rudimentary rocker "Let's Dance On" and the silly "Gonna Buy Me a Dog," but even these throwaways are charming and stand up to repeated listens. It's easy to see why kids were buying this record as fast as the label could press them up. Despite the origins of the group and the behind-the-scenes machinations, the music itself is young, exciting, and free. Who cares who did what and who didn't do what when the results are as rock-solid as "Last Train to Clarksville" or "Sweet Young Thing"? You could stack The Monkees up against almost any record of 1966 and the competition would be fierce, with this record coming out on top except in only a few cases.

[In 1994, Rhino reissued The Monkees with detailed and entertaining notes from Monkees historian Andrew Sandoval and three bonus tracks. It was a fine package and seemingly closed the books on the album. In 2006, Rhino, clearly caught up in the industry mania for releasing Deluxe Editions of albums, again reissued the record as a double-disc set with new notes from Sandoval, mono and stereo versions of the album, the bonus tracks from the original reissue, an armload of rare tracks drawn from the three volumes of the Missing Links set, and a few previously unreleased recordings. The set looks enticing, but to consumers weary of buying the same old rope repackaged as gold, you have to ask: is it worth it? The simple answer is if you are even considering buying the set, you should. The mono version of the record is excellent, the songs burst out of your speakers and sound almost raw in comparison to the softer stereo mixes. The notes from Sandoval cover new ground quite fascinatingly with quotes from Don Kirshner, Davy Jones, and Mike Nesmith among others. It's nice to have the rare tracks collected by recording date instead of randomly as they were on Missing Links. The rare tracks are all worth hearing too, especially the fast version of "I Wanna Be Free," which sounds like an incredible mash-up of Bob Dylan and the Association, and the so good you can't believe it was left off the album "All the King's Horses." The previously unreleased tracks are a mixed bag consisting of alternate mixes of "The Kind of Girl I Could Love," "Papa Gene's Blues," "(I Prithee) Do Not Ask for Love," and "I Won't Be the Same Without Her" that aren't all that exciting, but there's also an alternate backing track for "Gonna Buy Me a Dog" as produced by Mike Nesmith and Nesmith's demo for one of his best songs, "Propinquity (I've Just Begun to Care)," both of which make up for the lackluster alternate mixes. It's too bad they couldn't have dug up any more unreleased gems, but Sandoval has said the archives have been milked pretty dry so even finding these two interesting nuggets is a real bonus. Add to all of the above the wonderful photos that bring the package to life and you end up with a truly deluxe edition.] ~ Tim Sendra, All Music Guide