Monkees - Best of the Monkees
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Free Music Notes for Best of the Monkees
Free Music Review: Great for beginners
Hit: 5 Stars
This CD is wonderful for people who are new to the Monkees, casual fans, or the obsessed collector that needs to buy everything they release :)Free Music Review: Monkees+
Hit: 5 Stars
I love the Monkees; this CD is a recopilation of most of their hits. Good buy.Free Music Review: Awesome!
Hit: 5 Stars
I loved the Monkees and Best of the Monkees is 1000% pure listening pleasure.Free Music Review: Barrels of Fun!
Hit: 4 Stars
The Monkees should be taken more and less seriously. From the sixties they're popularity has ebbed and flowed probably more than any other band. This collection does them justice. It has all of their hits, plus all the songs that made it on their TV show. The selection and order are impeccable. Some of the songs are likable fluff; others are formidable power pop classics. They even have some social commentary that often gets under the radar. Any way you view it, there isn't one bad song, subjectively. Although objectively, some will have qualms with a few of the sentimental ballads (usually sung by Davy Jones). Admirably, the Monkees themselves hated the pretenses of having a back-up band to play their music, but they manfully, but sometimes less skillfully, took over the helm of the music and ripped the control of their music from their able, but headstrong producer Don Kirschner, who gave us appealing pop like "Sugar Sugar," as well as produced the Monkees first hits.
The very best songs are among the most appealing of the sixties. (Although it should be said that they couldn't entirely be pigeon-holed, like, say, The Association.) "I'm a Believer," "A Little Bit You, A Little Bit Me," "The Last Train to Clarksville," and "Another Pleasant Valley Sunday," should keep them on the map for years to come. Furthermore, the riveting "I'm Not Your (Stepping Stone)" has to be one of their very best songs. Before punk was invented, it's fast-forward appeal is still formidable. Adding to the variety are lesser known songs, like "Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)," which is a bit dated, but one of their most pleasing. "Randy Scouse Git," "Mary Mary," "Words," and the country "Listen to the Band," should make them be known as more than a novelty band.
Social commentary is more ample than thought. Certainly, they aren't looked upon like Dylan and the Beatles are, but "...Clarksville" and "Another Pleasant Valley Sunday" are great. On the surface the former seems like a fluff-ball love song. The narrator may not return to his lover because Clarksville is a war recruiting station. (After the pleasantries, "...toffee flavored kisses and a bit of conversation...," we get the punch line, "And, I don't know if I'm ever coming home.") And, in "Another Pleasant Valley Sunday" adults not attentive missed the sarcasm regarding the opulence and ostentation of suburban life in "status symbol land". Furthermore, "Shades of Grey" is about as bottom line philosophically about the sixties as you get. Great songwriters contributed. Carol King and Jerry Goffin, Neil Diamond, and Boyce and Hart upped the quality of the words and their pop appeal. Michael Nesmith was the formidable songwriter of the group, but Peter Tork has a gem with "For Pete's Sake," which is a fine piece of flower-power and a clever title.
All together now, "Best of the Monkees" covers all of the bases, doesn't leave any diamonds in the dust, and is sequentially nearly perfect.
Free Music Review: Fun & Carefree Trip to Revisit Some Old Friends
Hit: 4 Stars
The Monkees, the original "boy band" and trailblazer for Menudo, Boyz to Men, and a host of other manufactured bubble gum music makers, could not have realized what the producers of the television show and the music must have sensed: they had a pretty good thing going. When Davie Jones, Mickey Dolenz, Peter Tork, and Mike Nesmith set off to make a social commentary with the feature film, "Head" after experiencing incredible success with the television show, record sales, and concert dates, the quartet did not understand that their popularity was the direct result of the public's need to forget about the problems of the day, including assassinations, segregation, and Vietnam. Their success was also due in large part to incredible music and lyrics written by such now prolific songwriters and performers as Neil Diamond and Carol King who stopped working for The Monkees when The Monkees stopped working for Don Kirshner.
'The Best of the Monkees' is a great review and collection of all The Monkees hits and non-hits, from Neil Diamond's "I'm A Believer," "Look Out," and "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You," to Carol King's and Gerry Goffin's "Sometime In The Morning," and "Pleasant Valley Sunday," to all of the great Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart tunes like "Last Train to Clarksville," "Steppin' Stone," "Words," and "Valeri." (I guess Neil Diamond and Carol King did all right for themselves, huh?)
What is interesting for The Monkees neophyte is the songwriting talent of Mike Nesmith, who along with Peter Tork, were the only true musicians in the group. Because it was not teen-pop, Nesmith's songs in retrospect did not get the attention they really deserve. Nesmith wrote country/rock/pop songs recorded by The Monkees including "Mary, Mary," "The Girl I Knew Somewhere," "You Just May Be The One," and "What Am I Doing Hanging 'Round." Nonetheless, Nesmith created nice melodies and enjoyable "story songs" in his The Monkees writing days. I would be less surprised to hear a country cross-over act like Tim McGraw or Vince Gill record one of Nesmith's songs for a hit than I would hearing another cover of "I'm A Believer."
For the Baby-Boomer and early GenX-er, 'The Best of the Monkees' is a fun and carefree trip to revisit some old friends. For newer The Monkees fans, this CD gives a "retro" look (and listen) at the manufactured band phenomenon that has become somewhat commonplace in contemporaty popular music.
Don Kirshner was a genius, and it was too bad for The Monkees (and for us) that Davie, Mickey, Peter, and Mike did not stick with bubble gum.