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The Monkees: Peter Tork
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The four young men who became The Monkees were Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork. They were cast after ads were placed in trade publications calling for actors to play “4 insane boys” on a new television series. Among those rejected for the part was a then relatively unknown Stephen Stills. Rumors that Charles Manson ... tried out are just that, rumors. Nesmith and Tork were both already professional musicians, but Dolenz and Jones were better known as actors, and all four were trained in both improvisational comedy and performing musically as a group before the pilot episode was filmed, so that they could look and act like a cohesive band even though only their voices were being used on the initial recordings.
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The Monkees were a made-for-TV musical group formed in 1965 when the producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider advertised for band members in Variety. The next year the zany comedy TV show The Monkees debuted with the band's four members: drummer Micky Dolenz (b. 8 March 1945 in Los Angeles, California), bassist Peter Tork (b. 13 February 1942 in Washington, D.C.), guitarist Michael Nesmith (b. 30 December 1942 in Houston, Texas) and heartthrob singer Davy Jones (b. 30 December 1945 in Manchester, England).
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In the 1990s, The Monkees continued to create new musical material, eventually recording an album which all four members performed and produced, Justus, in 1996. The trio of Dolenz, Jones and Tork reunited again for a successful 30th anniversary tour of American amphitheaters in 1996, while Nesmith joined them onstage in Los Angeles to promote the new songs from Justus. For the first time since the initial reunion in 1986, Nesmith returned to the concert stage full-time for a tour of the United Kingdom in 1997, and two sold-out concerts at Wembley Arena in London highlighted the success of the band in the 1990s. The full quartet ... appeared in an ABC television special (written and directed by Nesmith) in 1997, spoofing the original series that had made them famous. However, once the revival craze died down, so did Michael Nesmith's interest in the group, and The Monkees disbanded once again. In fact, Davy Jones has gone on record to say another reunion of The Monkees as a complete unit "will never happen again."
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The sudden revival of The Monkees in 1986 helped move the first official Monkees single since 1971, "That Was Then, This Is Now," to the #19 position in Billboard. The success... was not without controversy. The Best of The Monkees. Some copies of the single and album credit the new songs to "The Monkees," others as "Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork (of The Monkees)." Reportedly, these recordings were the source of some personal friction between Jones and the others during the 1986 tour. A new album by the touring trio, Pool It!
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The Monkees were the brainchild of television producers Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson, who decided to emulate the zany, madcap humour of the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night for the small screen. In September 1965, they placed in ad in the show biz trade paper, Variety, for four "folk & rock musicians" to appear in a TV series. Over 400 applied for the job, including Stephen Stills and Harry Nilsson, but as it turned out, only one of the four winners, guitarist and songwriter Michael Nesmith , actually saw the ad. Micky Dolenz (who would play drums), Davy Jones (who would sing), and Peter Tork (bass) found out about the opportunity from other sources. Nesmith and Tork had experience in the folk scene; Dolenz and Jones were primarily actors (although Nesmith and Jones had already made some obscure solo recordings).
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Brushed off by critics during their heyday as manufactured and lacking talent, The Monkees experienced a critical and commercial rehabilitation in 1986. A Monkees TV show marathon on the video music channel MTV re-launched the group, sparking worldwide interest by both original fans and their children, who flocked to see Dolenz, Jones and Tork on their "20th Anniversary Tour." The marathon effectively resurrected Monkeemania, and the tour was forced to move from smaller venues to larger stadiums. Nesmith was forced to sit out most of these reunion projects because of prior commitments to his bustling Pacific Arts video production company.
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