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were the brainchild of a fellow at ScreenGems. The beatles were still the lovable moptops. They had come out with a movie "Hard Day's Night" and a cartoon show. Columbia studions with screen Gems decided that they could create a Beatles ripoff to snag some of that screaming teeny loot!
They put out a "cattle call" in Daily Variety, Hollywood Reporter and other industry papers and began casting for the parts. What they originally wanted was four American lads with Beatle haircuts who would pretty closely match the Beatles' linup: One tall, one handsome, one serious and one short and funny. They broke their own rule of "american only" when they saw Davy Jones! Davy, in fact, beat out one short fellow who also tried for the role. The two men read against each other (separately, I seem to recall) and Davy got the part because he was cuter and had a very good voice. The other man, blond and a songwriter, went on to write such hits as Old Fashioned Love Song, Evergreen and Rainbow Connection. Thus, Paul Williams never became a Monkee.
Peter Thorkelson shortened his name to Tork. The rest performed under their own names.
The ads asked that the people who came to the casting call have at least some musical experience. All four of the men selected did, in fact have some skills. They had never played together and the 'sound' of the group was sweetened, enhanced, mixed with studio musicians' tracks and pumped out as the group's own. Some of the efforts were by such talent as Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, Neil Diamond and others.
The Monkees, as they were named originally were content to allow the studio to make their music for them. It was a "Come in, pose for the camera, learn the lyrics and face it!" deal. But soon Nesmith and Tork became very disenchanted and they threatened to leave if things weren't shifted to reflect the group's growing talent.
Unfortunately, while the Monkees were wildly successful, they were somewhat trapped in their time and genre. Cute "lovable moptops" were on the way out as the Beatles followed the Rolling Stones into a darker, more politically active phase. The music scene shifted away and the typecast Monkees tried, unsucessfully, to keep up. After the album Pices, Capricorn, Aquarius and Jones, they began to falter badly. The series was canceled, along with studio support of their tours and they folded. They did regroup many years later and, if I recall, are still playing now and then.
The reason I know as much about the casting of Davy Jones v. Paul Williams is because I tried for the role, myself. Didn't EVEN get to read for it! By the time I got there, it was a done deal. *sigh*.
Otherwise you might see MY smiling face on the cover of the Rolling Stone.
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