The Monkees - Kirshner and More of The Monkees

Kirshner and More of The Monkees

Andrew Sandoval noted in Rhino's 2006 Deluxe Edition CD reissue of More of the Monkees that album sales were outstripping Nielsen ratings, meaning that more people were buying the music than watching the TV Show, which meant that the producers decided that more attention needed to be paid to the music, and that more music needed to be produced for more albums. Sandoval also noted that their sophomore album, More of the Monkees, propelled by their second single, "I'm a Believer" b/w "(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone", became the biggest selling LP of their career, spending 70 weeks on the Billboard charts, staying No. 1 for 18 weeks, becoming the 3rd biggest selling album of the 1960s, returning to the charts in 1986 for another 26 weeks.

At the time, songwriters Boyce and Hart considered the Monkees to be their project, with Tommy Boyce stating in the 2006 Rhino reissue of More of the Monkees that he considered the Monkees to be actors in the television show, while Boyce & Hart were the songwriters and producers doing the records. They wanted Micky to sing the faster songs, and have Davy sing the ballads. He also stated in the liner notes that he felt that Michael's country leanings didn't fit in with The Monkees' image, and although he thought that Peter was a great musician, he thought that Peter had a different process of thinking about songs that wasn't right for The Monkees. Music Coordinator Kirshner, though, realizing how important the music was, wanted to move the music in a newer direction than Boyce/Hart to get the best record, and so he decided to move the production to New York. where his A-list of writers/producers resided.

However, The Monkees had been complaining that the music publishing company would not allow them to play their own instruments on their records, or to use more of their own material. These complaints intensified when Kirshner moved track recording from California to New York, leaving the Monkees out of the musical process until they were called upon to add their vocals to the completed tracks. This campaign eventually forced Don Kirshner to let the group have more participation in the recording process. Dolenz's initial reaction, mentioned in the 2006 Rhino CD reissue of More of the Monkees, was "To me, these were the soundtrack albums to the show, and it wasn't my job. My job was to be an actor and to come in and to sing the stuff when I was asked to do so. I had no problem with that It wasn't until Mike and Peter started getting so upset that Davy and I started defending them they were upset because it wasn't the way they were used to making music. The artist is the bottom line. The artist decides what songs are gonna go on and in what order and who writes 'em and who produces 'em." Nesmith, when asked the situation in Rolling Stone said, " We were confused, especially me. But all of us shared the desire to play the songs we were singing. Everyone was accomplished – the notion I was the only musician is one of those rumors that got started and wont stop – but it was not true. We were also kids with our own taste in music and were happier performing songs we liked – and/or wrote – than songs that were handed to us. The producers backed us and David went along. None of us could have fought the battles we did without the explicit support of the show's producers."

Four months after their debut single was released in September 1966, on January 16, 1967, the Monkees held their first recording session as a fully functioning, self-contained band, recording an early version of band member Nesmith's self-composed top 40 hit single "The Girl I Knew Somewhere", along with "All of Your Toys" and "She's So Far Out, She's In". 4 days later, on January 20, 1967, their debut self-titled album made its belated release in the U.K. (it was released in October '66 in the U.S.). This same month, Kirshner released their second album of songs that used session musicians, More of the Monkees, without the band's knowledge. Nesmith and Tork were particularly upset when they were on tour in January 1967 and discovered this second album. The Monkees were annoyed at not having even been told of the release in advance, at having their opinions on the track selection ignored, at Don Kirshner's self-congratulatory liner notes, and also because of the amateurish-looking cover art, which was merely a composite of pictures of the four taken for a J. C. Penney clothing advertisement. Indeed, the Monkees had not even been given a copy of the album; they had to buy it from a record store.

The climax of the rivalry between Kirshner and the band was an intense argument between Nesmith, Kirshner, and Colgems lawyer Herb Moelis, which took place at the Beverly Hills Hotel in January 1967. Kirshner had presented the group with royalty checks and gold records. Nesmith had responded with an ultimatum, demanding a change in the way the Monkees' music was chosen and recorded. Moelis reminded Nesmith that he was under contract. The confrontation ended with Nesmith punching a hole in a wall and saying, "That could have been your face!" However, each of the members, including Nesmith, accepted the $250,000 royalty checks (equivalent to approximately $1,700,000 in today's funds).

Kirshner's dismissal came in early February 1967, when he violated an agreement between Colgems and the Monkees not to release material directly created by the group together with unrelated Kirshner-produced material. Kirshner violated this agreement when he released the "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You", composed and written by Neil Diamond, as a single with an early version of "She Hangs Out", a song recorded in New York with Davy Jones' vocals, as the B-side. This single would be withdrawn.

Kirshner was reported to have been incensed by the group's unexpected rebellion, especially when he felt they had "modicum talent" when compared to the superstars of the day like Lennon/McCartney. In the liner notes for Rhino's 2006 Deluxe Edition CD reissue of More of the Monkees, Kirshner stated, " because I had a contract. I kicked them out of the studio because I had a TV show that I had to put songs in, and to me it was a business and I had to knock off the songs." This experience led directly to Kirshner's later venture, The Archies, which was an animated series – the "stars" existed only on animation cels, with music done by studio musicians, and obviously could not seize creative control over the records issued under their name.

Screen Gems held the publishing rights to a wealth of great material, with the Monkees given first crack at many new songs. Due to the abundance of songs, The Monkees left a lot of songs unreleased until Rhino Records started releasing them through the Missing Links series of albums, starting in the late 1980s. The Monkees were even rumored to have turned down "Sugar, Sugar" in 1967. The selection became one of the biggest hits of 1969 when recorded by The Archies, featuring Ron Dante on lead vocals. But in the late 1990s, producer and songwriter Jeff Barry, who had jointly written and composed "Sugar, Sugar" with Andy Kim, denied that the Monkees had been offered the selection, saying that it had not even been written or composed at the time.

"Here, I'm going to make you a big star ... and you don't have to pay any dues. ... For that, you're going to get no respect from your contemporaries." ... To me, that was the cruelest thing.