The Monkees by The Monkees

The Monkees, the debut album from the made-for-TV quartet of Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork, went out on Colgems in the States and on RCA Victor everywhere else. The group had been dreamed up by TV producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider for an NBC sitcom, and at this stage the four mostly sang: professional songwriters supplied the tunes, session players such as the Wrecking Crew did much of the playing, and Don Kirshner ran the musical show.

None of that slowed it down. "Last Train to Clarksville" raced to the top of the Hot 100 ahead of the album, its only hit single, and the LP sat at number one on the Billboard 200 for 13 weeks until the band's own second album knocked it off, the first of four straight chart-toppers. It topped the UK chart in 1967 too and has sold over five million copies. One track is a Hollies song in disguise: "I'll Be True to You" had been their single "Yes I Will".

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.