In 1964 the Beatles made their first US television appearance as guests on the Ed Sullivan show. An estimated six million viewers, the largest in history witnessed the phenomenon. After more than fifty years their influence on fashion and music are still heart felt.
Ironically, Davey Jones another rising star appeared on the same show. He played “The Artful Dodger”, in the Broadway Smash “Oliver Twist”. Two years later he would be selected for the first manufactured band “The Monkees” Americas’ answer to the Beatles. Applying member’s statistics were fed into a computer and the selection was Davey Jones, Michael Nesmith, Mickey Dolenz and Peter Tork, the first manufactured band.
Contrary to hearsay they were all talented in their own right,
Peter Tork played keyboards in the original line up of the Crosby, Stills band. He was competent on Banjo, Base and rhythm guitar.
Michael Nesmith had already won talent contests; he was an accomplished guitarist and worthy song writer, credited for the hit song “Different Drum” Penned for Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys in 1966. It had a definitive country influence; perhaps this was the birth of Country Rock, for which Nesmith has been accredited. The Rolling stone Magazine once referred to his albums with the first national band as “The greatest country rock music never heard”. Mike conceived the idea for MTV and sold the rights to Warner Brothers. He was also the first to win a Grammy for best music video.
Mickey Dolenz was a very successful child actor, not such a great drummer and reasonable with the guitar, but no one can deny his vocal ability. He co wrote some great rock songs like “No Time” and that fantastic jazz number “Goin Down” plus “The Alternative Song” which charted top ten in England.
Davey Jones is rated as one of the greatest tambourine players, a very competent dancer, winning horse Jockey, actor, singer, songwriter and wonderful entertainer. Prior to teaming up with the Monkees, he already had a recording contract and released a successful solo album.
So, who ever said the Monkees had no talent and didn’t play their own instruments? The producers of the original albums for the Byrds forbid most the band members to play instruments on studio recordings because they were incompetent.
In the late sixties the Monkees outsold the Beatles and Rolling Stones combined. They created a signboard for all following manufactured acts. This marketing concept is still being used today. Remember “The Cream” with Richard Clapton, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce, in fact they were manufactured, hailed as the first super group, but the concept was for marketing purposes and the brainchild of Robert Stigwood.
The Stigwood story is one worth telling on its own, but just briefly, another of his great discoveries was the Bee Gees. They are the only band in music history to have top ten hits in four consecutive decades, 60’s 70’s 80’s and 90’s. The name was derived from the two most recurring letters in their names; B out of Barry and Robin and G out of Gibb. Barry Gibb as a songwriter and producer has sold close to five hundred million records.
But at the end the day, it was the Beatles that won out above all the rest, they were the trend setters in music style and fashion. Here we are in 2010 and in the midst of the Beatle style revival. Kids that were not even around in the sixties, seventies and part of the eighties are demanding suits with tapered trouser legs, thin lapels, fitted shirts and skinny ties, they want to replicate the sixties style. But didn’t you just love the Monkees music and zany television series?
The military jacket is back, paisley designer ties adorn the necks of respectable business men. Cufflinks are back in fashion after being sidelined for more than thirty years. For the mods silk pocket squares and lapel badges.
Style is constant.
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