In the beginning, The Monkees was a television show patterned after the movie, “A Hard Days Night†which starred the Beatles. Many young musicians from all over the country lined up to audition for the show, which premiered on NBC on September 12, 1966. The show was a fun comedy about a 4 long-haired musicians that were in their own band. In the series, all four used their names for the characters.
The four men chosen for the part of the Monkees were David Thomas (Davy) Jones born in Britain (percussion, guitar, drums, and vocals), George Michael (Micky) Dolenz JR born in Hollywood (drums, keyboards, guitar, and vocals), Robert Michael (Mike) Nesmith born in Texas (guitar and vocals), and Peter Halsten (Peter Tork) Thorkelson born in Washington DC (trombone, guitar, banjo, keyboards, bass, and vocals).
All four of the guys were given a personality to use for the show just as actors are given parts for shows. These were broken down like Dolenz to be the funny one, Nesmith was the serious one, Tork was the naïve one, and Jones was the cute one.
The music for the show was in the beginning was controlled music in which only you only heard the voice of Micky, however, the group became so popular that stage appearances had to begin. Micky even though he was seen on the drums did not play drums, but quickly took a crash course before the tours began.
The Monkees Discography includes:
The Monkees (1966)
More of The Monkees (1967)
Headquarters (1967)
Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. (1967)
The Birds, The Bees & the Monkees (1968)
Head (1968)
Instant Replay (1969)
The Monkees Present (1969)
The Best of the Monkees Then and Now (1986)
Changes (1970)
Pool It! (1987)
Justus(1996)
Davy, Peter, and Micky did tour the United States in 1997, before taking another break but joined up once again in 2001. During 2001, they toured the United States from March until September. Davy and Micky toured together in the United Kingdom in 2002 and again in the United States in 2002. After this final tour, all the Monkees have gone their separate ways to pursue individual projects. 2006 marked the 40th anniversary of the Monkees.
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