[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_monkees_3301.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The Monkees in 1967. From left to right: Peter Tork (in white), Davy Jones, Music/MichaelNesmith and Micky Dolenz.]]

->''"The Monkees themselves are a harmless lot, little pop-idol puppies who can't sing, can't dance, can't talk, don't need to."''
-->--'''Creator/RogerEbert''''s 1971 [[https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/head-1968 assessment]] of the group

!!!''This article is primarily about the band; the series has a page [[Series/TheMonkees here]].''

The Monkees started when two TV producers, Creator/BobRafelson and Bert Schneider, placed an ad in entertainment industry trade papers calling for "Folk & Roll Musicians-Singers for acting roles in new TV series". After hundreds of hopefuls auditioned, the "4 insane boys" who made the cut were FormerChildStar and GarageBand singer Micky Dolenz,[[note]]His parents were character actors George Dolenz, best known as the star of the Creator/ITCEntertainment series adaptation of ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'', and Janelle Johnson, who appeared in ''Film/TheBruteMan''[[/note]] expatriate Brit turned Broadway musical head-liner Davy Jones (not to be confused with [[DavyJones the ocean spirit of the same name]]), Texas-born singer-songwriter and Liquid Paper heir Music/MichaelNesmith, and Connecticut-raised Greenwich Village folkie Peter Tork. While all four had prior musical experience, Nesmith and Tork had no professional acting experience (the two had some high school and college acting creds, and Tork appeared in a long-lost short film made by an acquaintance in his college years), but they adapted quickly. Creator/ScreenGems partnered with Raybert Productions (Rafelson and Schneider's company) to produce the pilot. Creator/{{NBC}} picked it up as a series, and plans were quickly made to issue their music alongside the series on the newly-created Colgems ('''Col'''[[Creator/ColumbiaPictures umbia Pictures]] and [[Creator/ScreenGems Screen]] '''Gems''') label, which would be distributed by Creator/RCARecords. (RCA owned NBC at the time.) The concept of a Hollywood studio putting together a [[BorrowingTheBeatles Beatles-like]] pop band from scratch attracted much attention to the project, with the band being dubbed "The Prefab Four", though Rafelson has said that he viewed The Monkees as being like an ArrangedMarriage of talented guys, using The Beatles as an inspiration, rather than a coldly cynical FollowTheLeader situation.

Their music was an instant smash -- tellingly, the first single, "Last Train to Clarksville" (written by the team of Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, who also produced the debut album and contributed dozens of songs over the next few years) started climbing the charts ''before'' the TV series went on the air -- and the "4 insane boys" soon found themselves major stars. Still, musical director Don Kirshner rarely let them play on their records (or write their own songs)--which was kept secret until the frustrated band revealed it to the media, losing some credibility in the process. Continuing conflict culminated in Kirshner getting fired, and the Monkees took control of their music and show (with Nesmith holding most of the reins), both of which became increasingly free-wheeling and [[PsychedelicRock psychedelic]]. Even though the four had gotten greater control of song-writing, the band continued to take advantage of the pool of songwriters assembled for the show, since -- paraphrasing Peter Tork -- if ''you'' had access to Music/NeilDiamond and Music/CaroleKing in their prime writing songs for your band, wouldn't ''you'' use those songs?

The hits continued for a while, even after the Monkees gave up their TV series after its second season. However, the group's film ''Film/{{Head}}'', a surreal, deliberately plot-less {{Deconstruction}} of the band's journey through the ShowBusiness meat grinder, was a flop (although it has become a CultClassic); their television special, ''33 1/3 Revolutions per Monkee'', was a disappointment as well; and Tork left the band in November of 1968. Nesmith stuck around for two more albums (''Instant Replay'' and ''The Monkees Present''), both of which sold poorly, before leaving the band himself in February of 1970. Now reduced to a Dolenz/Jones duo, the Monkees still owed Colgems one more album, and though there was no shortage of releasable tracks still in the vaults, the label[[note]] Colgems itself was on its last legs. Columbia Pictures had acquired the successful independent label Bell Records in 1969 and planned to turn it into their primary outlet for record releases, phasing Colgems out in the process. [[/note]] opted to send them to New York to record some new songs with Jeff Barry, who'd produced ''More of The Monkees''. The resulting album, ''Changes'', marked a return to the bubblegum pop of the early albums. However, the songs on ''Changes'' were not as catchy or distinctive as the ones on the band's early albums. ''Changes'' didn't chart, and that was the end of the Monkees. The four ex-members went on with their separate lives and careers--until 1986.

In 1986, Creator/{{MTV}} began celebrating the Monkees' 20th anniversary by rerunning their TV series. The reruns got great ratings, and suddenly the Monkees were a viable proposition again. Dolenz and Tork were persuaded to record some new tracks for a GreatestHits album, one of which, "That Was Then, This Is Now", even charted in the top 20. Davy Jones rejoined the group, and the trio recorded a new album, ''Pool It'', and also began touring again. The independently wealthy Nesmith[[note]] His mother had invented Liquid Paper correctional fluid, and he inherited her fortune when she died. He had also founded the Pacific Arts Corporation, one of the first home video companies. [[/note]] was missing from ''Pool It'' and most of the concerts, but he returned in 1996 for the band's 30th-anniversary swan songs as a quartet--''Justus'', the only Monkees album not to feature any outside musicians, songwriters or producers, and its follow-up TV special ''Hey, Hey, It's the Monkees'' (which Nesmith also wrote and directed). Since then, CreativeDifferences and Peter Tork's health problems (he was diagnosed with a rare form of head and neck cancer, Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma, in 2009) seemed to have destroyed any chance of another reunion. However, in the summer of 2011, Jones, Dolenz and Tork embarked on a hugely successful concert tour commemorating the band's 45th anniversary.

Sadly, a full reunion became impossible in 2012, when Davy Jones died of a sudden heart attack in 2012 (on Leap Year Day). Still, the surviving trio kept the Monkees alive not just as a memory, but as a functional band; Dolenz, Tork, and Nesmith toured in 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015. In 2016, Dolenz and Tork not only toured to commemorate the band's 50th anniversary but released a new album, ''Good Times!'', which was produced by Music/FountainsOfWayne's Adam Schlesinger and included new songs by [[Music/{{Weezer}} Rivers Cuomo]], [[Music/{{Oasis}} Noel Gallagher]], [[Music/{{XTC}} Andy Partridge]], [[Music/TheJam Paul Weller]] and [[Music/DeathCabForCutie Ben]] [[Music/ThePostalService Gibbard]]. Nesmith appears on the album, but wasn't able to tour due to being busy writing his memoir ''Infinite Tuesday: An Autobiographical Riff''. He [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjpuyTN1N0o Skyped in to the band's June 1, 2016 show]] to do a song and joined the band in person for two more shows, one of which he announced beforehand as his final appearance with the group. However, Nesmith and Dolenz toured together as the Monkees in 2018 (this time, Tork sat out due to health problems and to work on a new solo album). That year, the band released another new album, a Christmas record called ''Christmas Party''. This turned out to be the last release with Tork, who died of cancer in February 2019. Dolenz and Nesmith toured as the Monkees in 2019 and planned a tour in 2020 that was delayed by the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic; during the delay, they decided that the postponed tour would be their last. The farewell tour finally started in September 2021 and ended November 14 at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. It turned out to be the ultimate swan song for Nesmith as well, as he passed away less than a month later, leaving Dolenz as the last living member of the group. Shortly after Nesmith's passing, Dolenz announced that The Monkees were finished as a band; any of his future performances will be by "Micky Dolenz of The Monkees". However, thanks to all this late career activity, along with the quality of their work, the Monkees' popularity and artistic legacy have remained strong to this day and will likely endure into the foreseeable future.

In 1987, in the wake of the publicity drummed up by the ''Pool It'' reunion, Creator/ColumbiaPictures assembled a group of musicians called "New Monkees". They starred on an eponymous syndicated TV show, but it [[ShortRunners only lasted 13 episodes]]. Their sole album wasn't a success at the time either, although it has developed a following.

The TV show is on [[Series/TheMonkees this page]]. ''Film/{{Head}}'' and the trivia game JustForFun/MonkeesEqualsMonkees also have pages.

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!!Principal Members (Founding members in '''bold''', final members in ''italic''):

* '''''Micky Dolenz''''' - lead vocals, drums, guitar, synthesizer, timpani (1966–1971, 1986–1989, 1993–1997, 2001–2002, 2011–2021)
* '''Davy Jones''' - lead vocals, percussion, tambourine, maracas, jawbone, chimes, organ, bass, guitar, drums (1966–1971, 1986–1989, 1993–1997, 2001–2002, 2011–2012, died 2012)
* '''''Music/MichaelNesmith''''' - lead vocals, guitar, organ, percussion, bass, maracas, keyboard (1966–1970, 1986, 1989, 1996–1997, 2012–2021, died 2021)
* '''Peter Tork''' - lead vocals, bass, guitar, keyboard, banjo, organ, piano, clavinet (1966–1968, 1986–1989, 1995–1997, 2001, 2011–2019, died 2019)

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!!Studio Discography:

* 1966 - ''The Monkees''
* 1967 - ''More Of The Monkees''
* 1967 - ''Headquarters''
* 1967 - ''Music/PiscesAquariusCapricornAndJonesLtd''
* 1968 - ''The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees''
* 1968 - ''Film/{{Head}}''
* 1969 - ''Instant Replay''
* 1969 - ''The Monkees Present''
* 1970 - ''Changes''
* 1987 - ''Pool It!''
* 1996 - ''Justus''
* 2016 - ''Good Times!''
* 2018 - ''Christmas Party''

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!!Live Discography:

* 1987 - ''Live 1967''
* 1987 - ''20th Anniversary Tour 1986''
* 1994 - ''Live!''
* 2001 - ''2001: Live In Las Vegas''
* 2001 - ''Summer 1967: The Complete U.S. Concert Recordings''
* 2006 - ''Extended Versions''

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!!The Monkees' musical career contains examples of:
* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: "Peter Percival Patterson's Pet Pig Porky" is a comical little story based on the "P" sound (as if the title didn't give it away).
* AdvertisedExtra: On the debut album, Peter's participation was limited to acoustic guitar on Mike's two songs and some backing vocals on a couple others. Even worse, on ''The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees'' his only contribution is the piano on "Daydream Believer" (which was not even recorded for that album, it was a holdover from the ''Pisces'' sessions), though one could argue that Peter's piano intro is the most distinctive feature of the Monkees' version of the song. [[note]]Peter wrote four songs for the album, but none made it into the final track listing. Two of the songs, "Can You Dig It?" and "Do I Have To Do This All Over Again?" would later appear on ''Head'', while the other two, "Lady's Baby" and "Tear the Top Right Off My Head", would not be released until 1987 and 1991, respectively.[[/note]]
* AlliterativeTitle: "Peter Percival Patterson's Pet Pig Porky", "Writing Wrongs", "Tapioca Tundra".
* BSide: "I'm a Believer"/"(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" and "Pleasant Valley Sunday"/"Words" could probably be considered double A-sided singles since the B-sides were both Top 20 hits in their own right. Several other B-sides charted as well, and the fan favorite "Goin' Down" was originally on the flip of "Daydream Believer".
* BadToTheBone: "Pleasant Valley Sunday" has become a popular alternative to "[[Creator/BennyHill Yakety Sax]]" for zany chase scenes.
* TheBandMinusTheFace: Multiple, depending on who you personally consider The Face. [[AvertedTrope Averted]] if you consider Micky the face, as he has been the only member to participate in all versions of the band.
** ''Instant Replay'' and ''The Monkees Present'' both came out after Peter had quit.
** ''Changes'' came out after Mike had quit and the band reduced to a Micky/Davy duo.
** A failed attempt at a full reunion in 1976 turned into Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart and the Great Golden Hits of The Monkees tour, pairing "the guys who sang 'em" (Micky and Davy) and "the guys who wrote 'em" (Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart).
** The 1976 single "Christmas is My Time of Year" was the first Micky/Davy/Peter project.
** The new tracks recorded for ''Then & Now: The Best of The Monkees'' in 1986, including the comeback hit "That Was Then, This is Now", were by Micky and Peter.
** ''Pool It!'' was Micky/Davy/Peter.
** ''Justus'' had all four members on the album and tie-in television special, but Mike declined to participate in most of the tour.
** The 2001-2002 tour started as a Micky/Davy/Peter trio, but Peter started causing backstage disruptions, and he got fired from the tour partway through. [[note]]He was repeatedly upset by what he claimed was excessive drinking by Micky and Davy. However, he's a recovering alcoholic, and it turned out he was uncomfortable seeing ''any'' alcohol. He later admitted that teetotalism wasn't a reasonable expectation for the others, and repaired relations with them.[[/note]]
** The 2011 reunion tour was again a Micky/Davy/Peter affair.
** The 2012 reunion after Davy's death was Micky/Peter/Mike.
** ''Good Times!'', like ''Justus'', has album contributions from all four members (including a posthumous Davy cut), but the tour is (mostly) Micky/Peter only. [[note]]Mike's only contributions are two brief appearances (one by Skype for a single song, one only in a four-song encore), two full-length shows where he substituted for Peter (who was attending to a family emergency), and a single full-length appearance with both Micky and Peter (which he declared to be his final performance as a Monkee).[[/note]]
** The 2018 tour was Micky and Mike. However, they performed under the name "The Monkees Present: The Mike and Micky Show" in deference to Peter, who had officially taken time off from the band to work on a solo album, but was also fighting the cancer that would ultimately take his life the next year. By this time, the Monkees were officially the duo of Nesmith and Dolenz.
** The 2021 farewell tour was Micky and Mike, again as "The Monkees Present: The Mike and Micky Show".
* BorrowingTheBeatles: They were conceived as a television version of Music/TheBeatles, a fact not unnoticed by observers at the time given that the group gained the disparaging nickname "The Pre-Fab Four."
** Both groups are named after living creatures in MyspeldRokband fashion.
** "Randy Scouse Git" is a ShoutOut to the Beatles. The word "Scouse" is a slang term for Liverpudlians. It also has the line "The four kings of Creator/{{EMI}} are sitting stately on the floor," a reference to the group.
* BoyBand: Arguably the TropeMaker in the sense of "a music group with a bunch of good-looking young men, put together by moguls specifically for the TeenIdol demographic."
* TheBusCameBack: Two songs released in 1969, after Peter left the band, still featured some musical contributions from him, since they'd been recorded while he was a member: "I Won't Be the Same Without Her" (recorded in 1966, Peter on acoustic guitar) and "Mommy and Daddy" (recorded in 1968, Peter on bass).
* CallBack:
** "Randy Scouse Git" includes the line "four kings of Creator/{{EMI}}", a reference to Music/TheBeatles. Two years later in "Mommy and Daddy" one of the lines Micky ad-libs at the end is "kings of EMI."
** "I Was There (and I'm Told I Had a Good Time)" is another reference to "Randy Scouse Git" and the Beatles, with the opening riff of the song being lifted directly from "Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand." What ties it all together is that the Monkees were present for one of the ''Sgt. Pepper'' recording sessions, but Micky has often mentioned through the years that he was stoned out of his gourd and has little recollection of it. "RSG" is sprinkled with what he ''can'' remember, and "I Was There" is the rest of the story.
* CaptainErsatz:
** ''The Monkees Present'' is often considered their equivalent to Music/TheBeatles' ''Music/TheWhiteAlbum''. They're both GenreRoulette albums that showcase the individual members instead of being group efforts, and both albums end with lullabies ("Good Night" for The Beatles, "Pillow Time" for The Monkees).
** Besides his obvious similarities to Music/RingoStarr (dorky but cute and endearing) and Music/GeorgeHarrison (his affinity for mysticism), Peter also filled a similar role to David Crosby in Music/TheByrds: a StepUpToTheMicrophone lead vocalist who was actually TheHeart of the band (Crosby with vocal arrangements, Tork with music arrangements), who wrote songs with sophisticated dark chords and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mode_(music) modalities]], and the band's true blue [[SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll hippie]]. Crosby and Tork were friends as well.
* CensoredTitle: Micky used the NonAppearingTitle "Randy Scouse Git" for his first self-composed Monkees song after watching ''Series/TillDeathUsDoPart'' while visiting England and hearing Alf Garnett call his son-in-law by that epithet, not understanding it at all but invoking RuleOfCool. Unfortunately, he wasn't aware that it's a mildly insulting phrase that means "sex-crazed jerk from Liverpool",[[note]]In British slang, "randy" means sexually aroused or horny, "Scouse" is a term for people or things from UsefulNotes/{{Liverpool}} (e.g., Music/TheBeatles, who are referred to as "the four kings of EMI"), and "git" is a term for an annoying or stupid person.[[/note]] and their UK label refused to release it at first, asking that song be given an alternate title. Hence, [[LiteralistSnarking it was initially released as "Alternate Title"]], although it has since been restored to its proper title.
* ChristmasSongs:
** On the series' ChristmasEpisode they sang the traditional Spanish carol "Ríu Chíu" (a different recording of it was released on one of Rhino's ''Missing Links'' albums).
** In 1976 Micky, Davy and Peter reunited to record [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX_a_5hPfgw "Christmas Is My Time of Year"]], which was distributed to members of the Monkees fan club and also briefly made available to the public.
** In 2018 the group recorded ''Christmas Party'', a mixture of holiday standards, covers of [[Music/PaulMcCartney "Wonderful Christmastime"]], [[Music/BigStar "Jesus Christ"]] and "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday" ([[Music/RoyWood Wizzard]]), and new songs written by [[Music/{{Weezer}} Rivers Cuomo]], [[Music/{{XTC}} Andy Partridge]], [[Music/{{REM}} Peter Buck]] and Creator/MichaelChabon (yes, ''that'' one).
* ContinuityNod: The title track of ''Christmas Party'' mentions Auntie Grizelda and her fudge.
* CreatorCameo: Bob Rafelson plays the cocktail lounge-y piano in the intro section of "Don't Call on Me".
* CultSoundtrack: The first four albums could be considered this, since they featured music that was used on the show. The ''Film/{{Head}}'' soundtrack also counts, since it was more successful than the film (even though it was their first album to miss the Top 10).
* CutAndPasteSuburb[=/=]StepfordSuburbia: The subject of "Pleasant Valley Sunday".
* DaydreamBeliever: One of the band's most popular songs is the TropeNamer.
* DaysOfTheWeekSong: "Saturday's Child".
* DramaticTimpani: Featured in "Randy Scouse Git" (and also in the video for the song on the TV show).
* FakeBand:
** The Monkees were not allowed to play their own instruments on the show during the first season until they overthrew [[ExecutiveMeddling label supervisor Don Kirshner]].
** Peter Tork didn't even sing on their first record: He had to make do as being one of the five guitarists on Nesmith's composition "Papa Gene's Blues", which contained the only instrumental contribution from a Monkee until Kirshner was fired.
* FakeOutFadeOut: "Listen to The Band".
* FloweryElizabethanEnglish: "Do Not Ask For Love", a Michael Martin Murphey-penned song recorded for, but left off of, their debut album and later revived for the ''33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee'' special:
-->''Thou makest me free then soon thou makest demands on me''\\
''And I am not thy love, thou workest in me slavery''\\
''But I shan't heed thee as before''\\
''I prithee, do not ask for love once more''
* FriendsWithBenefits: The kind of relationship the narrator of "I Wanna Be Free" seems to be describing as his ideal.
* GenreThrowback:
** ''Good Times!'' sounds like it could have been one of their 1967 releases.
** Michael's two songs on ''Christmas Party'' ("The Christmas Song", "Snowfall"), recorded with his current touring band, are very much in the style of his solo albums from TheSeventies.
* GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion: The Music/NeilDiamond-penned "Love to Love" was recorded in 1967 but didn't get released in its original state until much later, and was eventually included on several compilation albums. It was dusted off again for ''Good Times!'' in order to have a Davy Jones lead vocal on the album. The "new" version used the original backing track and an alternate lead vocal track, but added newly-recorded backing vocals from the other Monkees.
* GratuitousPanning: If you listen to the track "Zilch" with headphones on, it sounds like the four of them are surrounding you.
* GreyAndGrayMorality: The subject of "Shades of Gray".
-->Today there is no black or white, only shades of gray
* GroupieBrigade: TruthInTelevision of course, but "Star Collector" was one of the first rock songs about a groupie.
* GrowingUpSucks: "Shades of Gray".
* ImportantHaircut:
** During the psychedelic period, Micky stopped straightening his hair, while Davy cut his hair shorter.
** Borderline example: Mike, during the same period, stopped wearing his famous wool hat and grew [[HotBloodedSideburns killer sideburns]].
* InTheStyleOf:
** "No Time" = Music/TheBeatles' "I'm Down"[[note]]which itself was in the style of Music/LittleRichard[[/note]] and "Boys".
** "Your Auntie Grizelda" = Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}}' "19th Nervous Breakdown".
** Speaking of The Beatles and Stones, the debut album version of "I Wanna Be Free" obviously owes its arrangement style to "Yesterday" and "As Tears Go By".
* ItSeemedLikeAGoodIdeaAtTheTime: The band were fans of Music/JimiHendrix and wanted him to open for them on their tour. Somehow, the managers of both parties ''actually set up the arrangement''. Basically, The Monkees wanted street cred from hiring Hendrix, while Hendrix wanted mainstream exposure. This went about as well as you'd expect: whenever Hendrix went on stage, he was booed by Monkee fans. Both the Monkees and Hendrix were upset at this development and while there was no bad blood between them, Hendrix dropped out of the tour when "Purple Haze" started climbing the charts.
* KazoosMeanSilliness: The lighthearted "All Alone in the Dark" on ''Changes'' features a kazoo solo.
* LastNoteNightmare:
** "Pleasant Valley Sunday" ends with the song's EpicRiff gradually getting more distorted and echoey, before finishing in total chaos.
** "Star Collector". The final minute is dominated by the organ holding down a single discordant note, followed by it playing a jittery staccato riff as the band breaks down.
** "Auntie's Municipal Court" fades out with some bizarre tape loop samples floating over the music. The album version is strange enough, but the remix from the ''Listen to the Band'' box set adds a disturbing voice saying "My God, I'm dying!" over and over.
* TheLastTitle: "Last Train To Clarksville".
* LiteraryAllusionTitle: "The Door into Summer"' is named after [[Literature/TheDoorIntoSummer a novel]] by Creator/RobertAHeinlein.
* LocationSong: "Pleasant Valley Sunday" takes its title from Pleasant Valley Way, a main road in West Orange, New Jersey, the New York suburb where the song's writers Gerry Goffin and Music/CaroleKing lived at the time.
* LoopedLyrics:
** "Listen to The Band" (''The Monkees Present'') is a single verse and chorus repeated three times with minor lyric variations, plus a FakeOutFadeOut.
** "Ticket on a Ferry Ride" (''Changes'') constantly repeats the lines "I got a ticket on a ferry ride, I got a ticket and it hurts inside".
* LyricalDissonance:
** "Cuddly Toy", written by Music/HarryNilsson, is a rather dark song, with lyrics that seem to be telling the latest victim of TheCasanova to just get over it ("You're not the only cuddly toy/that was ever enjoyed by any boy... You're not the only choo-choo train/That was left out in the rain/The day after Santa [[DoubleEntendre came]]... I never told you that I loved no other/You must've dreamed it in your sleep"). You'd never know it by the bouncy, cheerful way Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz sing it, though (and Nilsson's own version turns the bounciness up to eleven). Additionally, the line "You're not the only cherry delight/That was left in the night/And gave up without a fight" implies that the woman was a virgin -- and an easy "conquest" as well.
** The main verses of "Randy Scouse Git/Alternate Title" are from the perspective of a young lad attending a festive party, and the refrain to the chorus switches to an angry, older man ranting at a long-haired youth:
--->Why don't you cut your hair? Why don't you live up there?\\
Why don't you do what I do, See what I feel when I care?\\
Why don't you be like me? Why don't you stop and see?\\
Why don't you hate who I hate, Kill who I kill to be free.
** "Goin' Down" is a fast-paced, upbeat song... about a guy having second thoughts after trying to drown himself (in a river and [[DrowningMySorrows drowning his sorrows in alcohol]]) while recovering from a hangover, as noted in the lines "Floatin' down the river with a saturated liver", "I wish I had another drink, it wouldn't be so hard to sink", "I can't believe they drink this stuff in town", and so on. Ultimately subverted in the last verse, when the guy starts to feel better about himself and decides to ride the river into New Orleans so he can have some fun.
** "Daddy's Song" is a brassy, upbeat song (until the last verse) in which the singer remembers the day his father walked out on his family.
** "Last Train To Clarksville" was written as a stealth commentary on UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. It's about a soldier who's done with basic training and wants to spend time with his lover before being sent to fight in the war. It brings a new meaning to "And I don't know if I'm ever coming home".[[note]]Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart picked the name Clarksville at random, but later learned that Clarksville, Tennessee is close to Fort Campbell, home of the US Army's 101st Airborne Division, which fit the song perfectly.[[/note]]
** "Pleasant Valley Sunday", a peppy little tune about the monotony and societally-enforced routine of suburbia - with a bonus shot at mass media, courtesy of the lines "And Mr. Green he's so serene/He's got a TV in every room".
* [[TheManBehindTheMan The Man Behind The Band]]: Evidently, Don Kirshner thought this was his role in the group's career. Consider his liner notes for ''More of the Monkees''; he devotes much more text to the team of veteran songwriters he assembled for the band than the band itself.
* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: "Mr. Webster" is about a bank employee who "thwarted 27 robberies" and was promised a raise by his boss each time, but the boss never followed through. Webster gets his revenge by taking all the bank's money as a retirement present to himself.
* MotorMouth: Micky in "Goin' Down".
* MyNaymeIs: Micky. It is not spelled with an E before the Y (he spelled it with an E as a child, but dropped it after high school).
* NeverBareheaded: Mike in the wool hat days, Micky more recently.
* NewSoundAlbum:
** ''Changes'', not just for featuring only Micky and Davy, but the music shifted from the Beatles-inspired GenreRoulette style of all the previous albums to more of a uniform, slick pop sound with a pinch of {{Soul}} influence.
** ''Pool It!'' brought back the GenreRoulette aspect (there's even a halfhearted attempt at {{Reggae}}, "She's Movin' In With Rico"), but is firmly rooted in TheEighties, sounding more like Music/{{Wham}} than Music/TheBeatles.
* NonAppearingTitle:
** Many of Mike's songs. Examples include "Good Clean Fun", "Daily Nightly", "Tapioca Tundra", and "Papa Gene's Blues", among many others. He adores this trope.
** "Randy Scouse Git" aka "Alternate Title" is a double dose of this.
** "For Pete's Sake"
** "Early Morning Blues and Greens", for a non-group-written example.
** "Birth of an Accidental Hipster"
* OneSteveLimit: Played with, and ultimately averted. Both Micky and Mike go by their middle names, as they were born George Michael Dolenz and Robert Michael Nesmith respectively.
* OneWomanSong: "Valleri" was a deliberate {{invo|kedTrope}}cation of this trope; Don Kirshner asked Boyce and Hart to write a song with a girl's name in it.
* PatterSong: "Goin' Down".
* PosthumousCollaboration: ''Good Times!'' featured a Davy lead vocal ("Love to Love", as mentioned in GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion above) and a guest appearance by Music/HarryNilsson ("Good Times", with his vocal taken from a demo recording of the song he made in 1968). ''Christmas Party'' has two Davy lead vocals, recorded in 1991, with newly-recorded backing tracks ("Mele Kalikimaka", "Silver Bells").
* ProgressiveEraMontage: The 2013 reunion tour shows opened with a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CFJH82sL3M video montage]] of moments from their history and various uses of Monkees music in pop culture, including a cereal commercial Micky did as a child actor, the "Win a Dream Date with Peter Tork" contest from the early years of ''[[Series/LateNight Late Night]] with Creator/DavidLetterman'', "Porpoise Song" on ''Series/MadMen'', the "Getting Davy Jones" episode of ''Series/TheBradyBunch'', Teri Garr playing "Last Train to Clarksville" in ''Film/AfterHours'', Music/JohnnyCash singing "Last Train to Clarksville", "Goin' Down" on ''Series/BreakingBad'', a Kool-Aid commercial with the group and WesternAnimation/BugsBunny, Bob Rafelson accepting the Best Comedy Emmy, various clips from ''Film/{{Head}}'', then finally the TV show TitleSequence. Typically, ''Mad Men'', ''The Brady Bunch'', and Johnny Cash got the biggest cheers from the audience.
* ProtestSong: Their career started with a subtle example; as noted, "Last Train to Clarksville" was secretly about Vietnam, but from then on, the band stayed apolitical during the Kirshner era. After he was ousted, the band did several songs that had varying degrees of social commentary, including "Shades of Gray", "Randy Scouse Git", "The Door Into Summer", "Pleasant Valley Sunday", "Daily Nightly", "Zor & Zam", and "Mommy & Daddy" (which was so blatantly anti-authority that ExecutiveMeddling forced Micky to tone down the lyrics). ''Justus'' added another example, "Admiral Mike".
* ProtoPunk: One of the genres that was on their GenreRoulette wheel. "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" became a GarageRock staple that eventually got covered by punk bands like the Music/SexPistols and Music/MinorThreat. While a few studio tracks also count as this ("Saturday's Child", "She"), it was their live performances where they sounded the most ProtoPunk, a combination of their unpolished style and having to play loud to even be able to hear themselves slightly over the screams of the audience. The live performance of "Circle Sky" in ''Film/{{Head}}'' is a great representation of this sound, but the various legal and bootleg recordings of the live shows in TheSixties are often very raw-sounding.
* {{Retraux}}: "Magnolia Simms", one of Mike's tributes to the music of TheRoaringTwenties, is meant to sound like it's being played on a 78 RPM record, complete with surface noise and RepetitiveAudioGlitch. On original vinyl pressings of ''The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees'', the song actually played at 78 RPM while the rest of the album was the usual 33⅓ RPM.
* RhymingWithItself:
** "She"
--->Why am I standing here\\
Missing her and wishing she were here?
** "P.O. Box 9847"
--->Lonely, understanding man affectionate and true\\
Looking for a girl to share his dreams and make them true
* SheIsAllGrownUp: Basically what the song "Valleri" implies.
* SignatureSong: "Daydream Believer" is considered to be Davy's song and his alone. After he died, the remaining members decided that none of them would take over as its lead and that the audience should sing it in homage instead.
* SillyLoveSongs: Plenty, and usually given to Davy to sing, in accordance with his persona as "The Heartthrob."
* TheSomethingSong: "Porpoise Song" and "Daddy's Song" from ''Film/{{Head}}'' and "French Song" from ''The Monkees Present''.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS:
** It's Micky, not Mickey, Dolenz. A promo shoot showing the group in directors' chairs with their names on them, and the label of the 1971 Micky/Davy single "Do It in the Name of Love" both make this error.
** Plus, Davy Jones, not Davey (though he often went by David, eliminating that confusion).
* SpokenWordInMusic:
** Davy and Micky cracking jokes during "Gonna Buy Me a Dog".
** Davy recites the lyrics to "The Day We Fall In Love", and he also does spoken interjections in "Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)".
** "Peter Percival Patterson's Pet Pig Porky" consists of Peter reciting a short story without musical accompaniment.
** The simulated nightclub chatter at the beginning and end of "Don't Call on Me".
* StageName:
** Peter Tork was born Peter Halsten Thorkelson.
** Micky Dolenz was credited as Micky Braddock when he starred in ''Circus Boy'' in TheFifties.
** Michael Nesmith was credited as Michael Blessing on his pre-Monkees singles for Colpix Records.
** Not a member of the band, but Chip Douglas, who produced ''Headquarters'' and ''Music/PiscesAquariusCapricornAndJonesLtd'', was born Douglas Farthing Hatlelid (and is credited under that name on ''Headquarters'').
* StealthPun: The last word of the title of ''The Monkees Present'' is supposed to be pronounced "pree-SENT", but if you pronounce it as "PRES-sent" it also works in the sense of saying the album is a gift from The Monkees to you, ''and'' saying that, with Peter having left the group at this point, Davy, Micky, and Michael were "The Monkees present".
* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Peter sang full lead vocals on just eight songs (plus one short spoken piece) from their studio albums, with just two of those songs coming from the group's 1960s releases ("Your Auntie Grizelda" from ''More of the Monkees'' and "Do I Have To Do This All Over Again?" from the ''Head'' soundtrack); "Your Auntie Grizelda" is one of the few times when Peter got a chance to sing lead vocals. He's better represented on rarities albums, bonus tracks and in live shows.
* TakeThat:
** A music publisher told Mike that he needed to write songs with memorable hooks which were "good clean fun". So he wrote a song called [[LiteralistSnarking "Good Clean Fun"]] but [[NonAppearingTitle didn't use the title anywhere in the lyrics]].
** Creator/RCARecords in England told Micky Dolenz that they wouldn't release "Randy Scouse Git" in England unless it had an alternate title, so Micky said "Okay, 'Alternate Title' it is", and in the U.K. record market, "Alternate Title" replaced "Randy Scouse Git" as the title.
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: The various reunion projects since TheEighties have seen this to varying degrees, with all four members having individual ideas on what would be best for their careers, which often clashed. Everyone's egos mellowed with age, though.
* TheVillainSucksSong: "Your Auntie Grizelda".
-->You can't begrudge her style, your Auntie Grizelda\\
She couldn't budge a smile and do it for free\\
So righteous making fudge, your Auntie Grizelda\\
So proper, judging others over her tea
* TrainStationGoodbye: "Last Train to Clarksville" is about a soldier trying to meet his lover at the titular train station; while it's not explicitly stated, the implication is that he's about to go overseas to fight in Vietnam.
* UnbuiltTrope: Much of the ''Film/{{Head}}'' soundtrack sounds like The Monkees doing their takes on various music styles from TheNineties--in 1968! "Porpoise Song" sounds like DreamPop or {{Shoegazing}} (Music/TheChurch even covered it), "Circle Sky" is like early PopPunk, and "As We Go Along" calls to mind Music/{{Jewel}}-style Folk Pop.
* UncommonTime:
** "Love is Only Sleeping" is in 7/4.
** "As We Go Along" is all over the place. The verse goes three bars in 5/4, one bar in 6/4, five bars in 3/4, repeats that pattern, then it stays in 3/4 for the chorus. No wonder Micky recalled that "it was a bitch to sing".
* UrExample: The Dolenz/Nesmith/Jones vocal blend can be seen as something of a precursor to the sound that Crosby, Stills & Nash would later make famous, in that both groups featured a nasally Mancunian (Jones and Nash), a gravelly-sounding southerner (Nesmith and Stills), and a smooth-voiced Californian (Dolenz and Crosby).
* VocalEvolution: A surprising amount in 4 years. Mike had his tonsils removed in May 1967, and after that his voice was a touch deeper and less drawly. Davy was a natural baritone but was asked to sing at a raised pitch on the early albums, apparently so his voice matched his physical stature. On the later albums he didn't do that as much. Micky was exactly the opposite: starting around 1968 he preferred to sing at a ''higher'' pitch than he had before. If you knew nothing about The Monkees and heard a few later songs ("Zor and Zam"[[note]]where Micky sounds a lot like [[Music/JeffersonAirplane Grace Slick]][[/note]], "As We Go Along", "Acapulco Sun"), you'd be excused for [[ViewerGenderConfusion thinking they had a female member]]. Peter...well, his voiced stayed fairly constant, but his phrasing got more natural over the years.
* VocalTagTeam: All four Monkees sang. With the exception of Peter, each one was featured as lead vocalist on at least one song from each album in which he participated. Peter would later sing "Your Auntie Grizelda" (''More of the Monkees'') and "Do I Have to Do This All Over Again?" (''Head'') and recite "Peter Percival Patterson's Pet Pig Porky" (which was [[MinisculeRocking 27 seconds long]] on ''Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.''), in addition to [[LetsDuet sharing lead vocals]] with Davy on "Shades of Gray" (''Headquarters'') and Micky on "Words" (''Pisces'').
* WhosOnFirst: In "Gonna Buy Me a Dog":
-->'''Davy Jones:''' I just got back from UsefulNotes/{{Africa}}, y'know. I was playing cards with the natives.\\
'''Micky Dolenz:''' Oh, Zulus?\\
'''Davy:''' No, I usually won.
* WordSaladLyrics:
** Several of Mike's lyrics during the psychedelic period.
** Mike's "Tapioca Tundra".
** Music/CaroleKing's lyrics for "Porpoise Song" are [[Film/WalkHard Dewey Cox]]-level gibberish.
** Micky dabbled in this as well, with "Randy Scouse Git" and "Shorty Blackwell", and the opening to "No Time":
--->Hober reeber sabasoben, Hobaseeba snick, Seeberraber hobosoben, What did you expect?
* WorldMusic: "Can You Dig It?" from ''Film/{{Head}}'' is a musical CultureChopSuey. There's an obvious Indian raga influence in there, but also some East Asian flavoring (which fits lyrics that composer Peter Tork said were inspired by the [[UsefulNotes/{{Taoism}} Tao Te Ching]]). And it sounds Middle Eastern enough that the sequence for the song in the film had an ArabianNightsDays theme, complete with belly dancers. And that's not all: Peter himself described the song's chords as "vaguely Spanish/North African".

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