The Monkees - I'm a Believer - 31 december, 1966. Formed: 1965 in Los Angeles, California Years Active: 1965 - 1969, 1985 - 1986, 1995 -1996 Group's Main Members: Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork, Mickey Dolenz, Davy Jones The Monkees, even today, still go down as the most successful TV rock show idea ever. That was how they came about, as an idea for a TV show molded after the Beatles movie, A Hard Days' Night. A TV show about four poor hippie band members, with lots of slapstick comedy, and of course, music too.The fact that this manufactured group turned into a real band and had a whole bunch of big hits is really, well, far out! Screen Gems executive Don Kirshner came up with the idea after seeing the Beatle movie and hired producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider to begin auditions for the show in 1965. An ad was placed in Variety, and amongst the 437 applications were Stephen Stills, Danny Hutton (later of Three Dog Night ), Harry Nilsson and Paul Williams. Only one Monkee! would be found from the auditions, guitarist and songwriter Michael Nesmith, who's song "Different Drum" was a then current top ten hit for Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys. Hired later from other sources were folk singer/guitarist Peter Tork, and actors Mickey Dolenz (who started out as a child actor), and Davy Jones, who didn't know how to play a note of music. They were hired first and foremost as actors for the TV show; with no plans to have an actual real life band come about. It was decided
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