This Week's Monkees Music & TV Almanac (11/29-12/5/09)

[AaronHandy3]

NOVEMBER 29, 1969

"The Success Story", Episode No. 6 of The Monkees (prod. #4710, aired on NBC October 17, 1966 and May 29, 1967), was repeated at noon Eastern on CBS, with a new song added: "French Song," written by Bill Chadwick.

DECEMBER 1, 1968

The Monkees' sixth album, the soundtrack to their feature film HEAD (#COSO-5008), was released to stores on LP and 8-track. The album's front cover was packaged in a heavy Mylar sleeve, which was designed to reflect the buyer's own head (undoubtedly patterned after John Brockman's avant-garde HEAD ad campaign). Mylar, of course, is very difficult to produce, especially for album covers, and, as a result, the HEAD soundtrack was released late due to Colgems' problems with the cover.

The album, the first one not to be released in mono, was a bizarre melange of songs and dialogue, coordinated by Jack Nicholson, co-writer and co-producer of the movie (with director Bob Rafelson). The 6 tracks on the album were produced by Gerry Goffin ("Porpoise Song" [Theme From HEAD]) and The Monkees. One track on the album, Michael Nesmith's "Circle Sky", was filmed and recorded live in May 1968 in Salt Lake City's Valley Auditorium and included in the movie but not the soundtrack, as an earlier-recorded studio take was employed instead.

While the movie HEAD itself tanked miserably at the box office, its neighbouring soundtrack LP fared slightly better, peaking @ #45 on the Billboard charts. Sadly, this turned out to be The Monkees' last album as a quartet.

DECEMBER 4, 1967

"The Monkees In Texas" (prod. #4761) first aired @ 7:30 p.m. (EST) on NBC as the 45th episode of The Monkees.

Kellogg's sponsored the show this week, and "Words" written by Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart and "Goin' Down" written by Diane Hilderbrand, Peter Tork, Michael Nesmith, Micky Dolenz & David Jones were the songs featured.

DECEMBER 4, 1971

"Monkee Mayor", Episode No. 36 of The Monkees (prod. #4760, aired on NBC October 2, 1967 and April 15, 1968), was repeated @ Noon (EST) on CBS.

DECEMBER 5, 1966

"One Man Shy" (a.k.a. "Peter And The Debutante") (prod. #4722) first aired @ 7:30 p.m. (EST) on NBC as the 13th episode of The Monkees.

Kellogg's originally sponsored this episode, which featured the songs "You May Just Be The One," written & produced by Michael Nesmith, and "I'm A Believer", written by Neil Diamond and produced by Jeff Barry, a phenomenal tune which made its debut appearance in this episode. Released as the A-side of the Colgems #66-1002 single on November 12, 1966, the song was heavily hyped by NBC, as it was used in every episode of The Monkees TV series aired on The Peacock Network in December 1966. All this, naturally, resulted in "I'm A Believer" being The Monkees' biggest hit (a 7-week stay at the top of the Billboard chart!), not to mention the Top song of 1967! "I'm A Believer" made no further appearances on The Monkees TV series beyond December 1966 (save for a brief snippet in the final minutes of Episode No. 32, "The Monkees On Tour", the show's first season finale), but Micky can be heard briefly mentioning its title in Episode No. 38, "I Was A 99-lb. Weakling", and he also performed "I'm A Believer" in a duet with Julie Driscoll in the 1969 TV special 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee.

DECEMBER 5, 1970

"The Devil And Peter Tork", Episode No. 52 of The Monkees (prod. #4737, aired on NBC February 5 and July 29, 1968), was repeated @ 12:30p.m. (EST) on CBS, with a new song added: "I Never Thought It Peculiar," written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart.