KURATED NO. 263
HEY, HEY THEY WERE THE MONKEES
A Brief Lookback at the 60s Novelty Phenomenon
CONTENTS
- PLAYLIST
– on YouTube and Spotify - TWO SONGS
– Riu Chui – Video of a Spanish medieval tune now popular at Christmas
– Me and Magdalena – from 2016’s Good Times - ESSAY
– Vice Magazine: Good Times, Forever: Looking Back on 50 Years of the Monkees - TRACKLIST below
The Monkees were Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork. They shot to fame thanks to their TV show which lasted a mere year and a half from September 1966 to March 1968.
HEY, HEY THEY WERE THE MONKEES
“Here we come,” they famously sang.
And they went … but their staying power lingered
If you’re under 65 you probably know little – or anything – about the ground-breaking pop culture phenomenon that was The Monkees. Comprising Mike Nesmith, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork and Davy Jones, the four were plucked from a 400-person audition to star in new sitcom featuring a struggling pop band. Each of them had backgrounds in music, acting or both. Before they knew it they were made-for-TV teen idols caught in the dizzying vortex of an 18-month turn in the national limelight from September 1966 to March 1968.
For 58 Sunday evening episodes the zany actor-musicians (or vice versa) captured viewers’ eyeballs with their antics pioneering an Emmy Award-winning series of TV firsts while adamantly challenging their reputation as a “manufactured” band. Low ratings and other issues cancelled the show. Nonetheless, The Monkees show won two Emmy Awards in 1967: Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy. It also won the directorial award in 1968.
Commenting on Davy Jones’ death in 2012 TV critic James Poniewozik praised the program: “Even if the show never meant to be more than entertainment and a hit-single generator, we shouldn’t sell The Monkees short. It was far better TV than it had to be; during an era of formulaic domestic sitcoms and wacky comedies, it was a stylistically ambitious show, with a distinctive visual style, absurdist sense of humour and unusual story structure. Whatever Jones and The Monkees were meant to be, they became creative artists in their own right, and Jones’ chipper Brit-pop presence was a big reason they were able to produce work that was commercial, wholesome and yet impressively weird.”
On the musical side of the equation The Monkees weren’t an exceptional band but they were sheer gold when it came to sales and pop music charts. They still hold the Billboard record for being the only act to have four No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 in a calendar year. That they didn’t play their own instruments on the first two albums didn’t matter. They sang over tracks by session professionals The Wrecking Crew. In later work they became a regular band writing most of their own songs, singing and playing instruments.
Active between 1966 and 1970 they produced 9 albums. However, the band’s afterlife extended for decades with their show in constant syndication. It still pops up on some networks. At the same time their numerous mix and match reunion tours featuring combinations of the four kept them in front of live audiences over the years. The last run was in 2020 when Dolenz and Nesmith toured and recorded a great accompanying album – The Monkees Live: The Mike and Micky Show. Nesmith died the following year leaving Dolenz, now 80, as the sole surviving Monkee. Peter Tork passed in 2019 preceeded by Jones in 2012.
I hadn’t thought about the Monkees since 2011 when I saw their name on a concert venue marquee in downtown Portland. I had no idea they still existed. It was the last of their many reunion tours before Jones died.
The playlist: 16 strong songs
Over Christmas I came across the band singing a beautifully rendered medieval a capella song from 1500’s Spain named Riu Chiu. It was the last number of their 1967 TV Christmas show and the musical detour was a surprise – who knew The Monkees had such style? (You can watch them perform it on the YouTube playlist).
A few days later I randomly heard the beautiful Me and Magdalena from the Monkees’ first original album in 20 years – Good Times released in 2016. This prompted a search for other hidden Monkee gems. It turns out there are a number worth hearing as well as some strong versions of favourites from their heyday.
The result is a 16-song Kurated playlist of worthy songs most of us have never heard – peppered with a few oldies. The Monkees were an average band. But their personal chemistry and good timing in the cultural TV zeitgeist of the 60s briefly vaulted them to stardom making them a unique and somewhat memorable and endearing phenomenon.
17 January 2026
Track List / 16 Songs
This is a small sample gathered from many compilations and live and studio albums.
If you’re so inclined the Missing Links series offers a good starting point into Monkeeing around in their work
