You can call the Monkees a contrived, made for TV, Beatles rip off/spin off, designed to sponge off the suddenly materialized teeny-bopper crowd....and you would be pretty much right. But the songwriting was solid and for what they were, bubble-gum finger snappers, the songs hold up surprisingly well. I liked the days when good harmony, arrangement and background vocals were considered important.
Pleasant Valley Sunday!
Yeah, but they didn't have any half nekid teenage blonde chicks in the band.
Of course, they didn’t write or arrange any of their hits and most of the instruments in the recordings were played by crack studio musicians. When they finally insisted on having control and doing their own songs they failed miserably. I do like their stuff, but that’s the reality.