The Monkees
In the early 1960s, Kirshner was a successful music publisher as head of his own company, Aldon Music, with Al Nevins, bringing performers such as Bobby Darin together with songwriters and musicians.
Kirshner was hired by the producers of The Monkees to provide hitworthy songs to accompany the television program, within a demanding schedule. Kirshner quickly corralled songwriting talent from his Brill Building stable of writers and musicians to create catchy, engaging tracks which the band could pretend to perform on the show. This move was not because of any lack of Monkee talent, but required in order to keep up with the demanding schedule to churn out ready-to-go recordings to give each week's episode its own song. While Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork were already experienced musicians, and Davy Jones was an established musical performer, as a working band, they had little experience, and Micky Dolenz was completely new to drums. Each Monkee was retained for vocal duties, but they did not actually play instruments on the records.
The formula worked phenomenally well – the singles "Last Train to Clarksville" and "I'm a Believer" and the first two Monkees albums were produced and released in time to catch the initial wave of the television program's popularity. Future Taj Mahal and John Lennon guitarist Jesse Ed Davis sat in on guitar. After a year, the Monkees wanted a chance to play their own instruments on the records. They also wanted additional oversight into which songs would be released as singles. Further, when word belatedly came out that the band had not played on the first season's songs, a controversy arose, and the public expressed a desire to hear the television stars perform their own music.
The matter reached a breaking point over a disagreement regarding the Neil Diamond-penned "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" in early 1967. The song, released by Kirshner as a single without Columbia Pictures' consent, led to his dismissal. The initial B-side was replaced with a Nesmith song, performed by the Monkees, and they performed on the next year's recordings, featured in the show's second season.
Kirshner's later venture was The Archies, an animated series where there were only the studio musicians to be managed.
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