American music group
Tom Carson
Last Updated: Feb 21, 2019 See Article History
The Monkees, American pop-rock group created as a made-for-television answer to the Beatles in the mid-1960s. The members were Micky Dolenz (byname of George Michael Dolenz; b. March 8, 1945, Los Angeles, California, U.S.), Davy Jones (byname of David Jones; b. December 30, 1945, Manchester, England—February 29, 2012, Stuart, Florida), Mike Nesmith (byname of Robert Michael Nesmith; b. December 30, 1942, Houston, Texas, U.S.), and Peter Tork (byname of Peter Thorkelson; b. February 13, 1942, Washington, D.C., U.S.—d. February 21, 2019).
Motown’s special case aside, the Monkees may have been the ultimate refutation of the 1960s rock audience’s folk-derived precepts of authenticity. When the quartet was picked from more than 400 audition applicants to play a frolicsome ersatz Fab Four in an American television series (The Monkees, broadcast from 1966 to 1968), only folk rocker Nesmith, who had some ability as a songwriter, and sometime folksinger Tork, who had a nice smile, could claim musical experience. Jones, the diminutive token Britisher who did double duty as “the cute one,” was an ex-jockey but had been nominated for a Tony Award as best supporting actor in 1963 for Oliver!. Dolenz was a former child actor who had starred in the late 1950s television series Circus Boy. Anonymous studio musicians supplied the backing on the “group’s” records until the foursome, hoping to gain respectability, pushed for and got autonomy (including the opportunity to actually play their instruments) on the third Monkees album, Headquarters (1967).
Elvis Presley, American popular singer widely known as the “King of Rock and Roll” and one of rock music’s…