During the Monkees first round of popularity in the 60’s for some reason the music public became angry when they found out that they didn’t play their own instruments on their records. The group had been trying to get more control over their music. They reluctantly agreed to the first album being released as they really had no control over that at the time and it had to be released to coincide with the broadcast of the show. What fanned the flames of the Monkees anger, mostly Mike’s, was when Don Kirshner released the 2nd album, More of the Monkees, a few months later without telling them. The album was compiled of songs that the Monkees had recorded and were rejected for the first album. The show was such a big hit that Kirshner rushed the 2nd album into release. The Monkees only found out when they were on tour and saw it for sale. They bought it and listened to it. They couldn’t believe that they were not told of its release date. I believe this all happened after the meeting where Mike put his fist through the wall but I could be wrong. However, it added fuel to the fire for the next meeting with their producers. They must have realized this was a problem that would not go away and was getting out of hand. They told the Monkees that from now on they could produce songs that would be released as the B side of their singles starting with the next one. Rafelson and Schneider told this to Kirshner. He apparently didn’t take it well as he secretly released the song “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You” in Canada with the B side version of “She Hangs Out” that he produced. Davy sang lead on both and the promo was released to DJ’s labeled as “Davy Jones My Favorite Monkee Sings.” It has always been a bit of a mystery to me as to why Davy sang on both when he had been told his group would produce the B sides. Perhaps this was recorded before that order had been given. Another explanation sort of comes from the actor John Goodman. He was on the huge hit show “Rosanne” but kept taking offers to appear in films and guest spots on other TV shows. The man never seemed to take a vacation. He was asked why he didn’t take any time off and kept taking so many roles. He said an actor’s mentality is that they never know when the next job will come along. So they take the next role that is offered to them. That way they keep working. Perhaps that is the way Davy was thinking at the time and he would sing whenever Kirshner or anybody would ask him.
When the producers of the Monkees found out they called Don Kirshner on the carpet. During that meeting Kirshner was fired from the Monkees project. The producers recalled the 45 that he released in Canada. Some of those 45’s were sold and exist today in music lovers record collections. If one is in mint condition today it would be worth $100 or more. The recall made it and the DJ promo very rare. The Monkees did record one of their best songs as the B side to “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You.” It was the Mike Nesmith song “The Girl I Knew Somewhere.” Nez was pretty smart. Not only did he get to produce what he wanted but he also made money as the writer of the song and I am sure he still gets royalties from it. Their next project was their biggest. They produced the 3rd album Headquarters. They were given their chance and they ran with it and produced one of the best pop bubblegum music albums of the 60’s. There were only 2 problems. One is that it still sounded like something Kirshner’s people would have produced. In a way that is understandable. This was their first time producing as a group and Kirshner’s people, mostly Boyce and Hart and Jeff Barry, had already established their sound from the recording studio. However, I think they would have made a better point to Kirshner and their producers if they could have had time to invent a new sound. In the end the third album was still their baby with all the music coming from them or under their control. The album was even recalled. Not because of the music but because of the back cover art. One of the photos showed Mike, Peter and Micky with beards. The producers wanted only clean shaven photos of the guys on the album so they recalled it. The 2nd version was the same as the first but the offending photo was replaced with a picture of the recording engineer Hank Cicalo and Douglas Farthing Hatelid who the Monkees hired to help them produce the album. The second thing that hurt it was that while the album went to #1 on the Billboard charts it still didn’t sell as many copies as the first two albums did. It isn’t that the album wasn’t as good as the first two. It is just that the music scene had changed almost over night. You see the album that was released later was the Beatles “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.” The whole landscape of the rock and roll music business changed with that album for everyone. Still the Monkees proved they could produce their own music and for a brief time became considered part of rock and roll royalty. The August 26, 1967 album charts was as follows.
1. Sgt. Peppers – The Beatles
2. Headquarters – The Monkees
3. Flowers – The Rolling Stones
4. The Doors – The Doors
5. Surrealistic Pillow – Jefferson Airplane
Still, after that all too brief moment, the Monkees were back to being seen as TV stars who were just playing at being rock stars. Another thing that may have hurt the sales of the album was that there was no single released from the album in the United States. There were plenty of good songs on the album that would have made good singles for the top 40 radio. Randy Scouse Git was released under the different name of Alternate Title in England because it was causing a minor controversy their. You see in England R.S.G. is considered a vulgar term. Dolenz wrote the song and heard that phrase when he was in England. He didn’t know what it meant but liked the sound of it and used it as his title. I heard Forget That Girl was released over seas. Their 2nd season closing song, For Pete’s Sake, was on this album. Just think how big that song would have been if it was released in September of that year. It was heard every week at the end of the show. It was heard by millions of TV viewers every week and that alone could have sent it to #1. The Nesmith tunes You Told Me and You Just May Be The One were also good top 40 tunes. Why was there never a single hit in the USA off of this album? We may never know.
Headquarters is the only album from the 60’s where they recorded as a group. Micky said that Peter was happiest when they did this album. Peter later confirmed that. He said it was because they finally came together as a musical group and played to their musical strengths. Eventually the pace of recording, doing a TV series and concerts caught up to them and their next albums were produced pretty much the same way as Kirshner and his company did. They came in and added their instruments and vocals to tracks already recorded. The difference was that it was all under their control and they didn’t have to do what Krishner told them. Eventually the group members went their separate ways. Their next group effort with all 4 members was in the 90’s with the album (CD) Justus. It was recorded the same way as Headquarters but didn’t do as well on the charts. Still the Monkees adventures in the music recording studio can be traced back to the song “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You.” Without the controversy that 45 caused the album Headquarters may not have been recorded or turned out as we know it today. The 45 itself under its second release became one of the biggest double sided hits in rock and roll history.
The above photo is the picture sleeve from the Japan release of the song. You can buy it at this site.
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