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For my money, the Monkees are way, way more interesting than the Beatles. 

According to Andrew Sandoval's thorough and invaluable book "The Monkees: The Day-By-Day Story of the '60s TV Pop Sensation," an ad was put in Variety and the Hollywood Reporter on September 8, 1965, looking for "four insane boys" to be the members of a new pre-fabricated pop band. The band would also star in a TV series -- deliberately meant to evoke Richard Lester's 1964 Beatles film "A Hard Day's Night" -- that would use their real names, but present their lives as a fictional merry-go-round of kooky shenanigans. 

The producers zeroed in on former child actor Micky Dolenz, a friend of musician Stephen Stills named Peter Tork, a British, boyish heartthrob named Davy Jones, and heir to the Liquid Paper fortune, Mike Nesmith. Their TV series debuted on September 12, 1966, the week after "Star Trek" debuted, and...

Micky Dolenz was thrust into the role of The Monkees drummer after being cast as a member of the NBC series alongside Mike Nesmith, Peter Tork, and Davy Jones. Although a proficient guitarist, Dolenz never sat behind a drum kit before the series began. Once it became successful, The Monkees were expected to play live on tour, despite never recording together. Micky Dolenz developed an arsenal of tricks to stay on beat. Here are three of them.

Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Mike Nesmith, and Peter Tork made up The Monkees | Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Micky Dolenz used a different setup than most drummers

Per an interview with Modern Drummer, Micky Dolenz admitted to modifying his drumset for him to keep on the beat. This switch was done to assist Dolenz after a lingering childhood health issue caused him physical discomfort.

Dolenz set up his kit in a unique way.

A 2020 video featuring Micky Dolenz and Mike Nesmith of The Monkees revealed that Dolenz’s sister had unknowingly captured the photo used for the cover of their live album.

The duo recorded The Monkees Live: The Mike and Micky Show while on tour in 2019, marking the band’s first performances after Peter Tork died in February 2019. They released the record the following year with an album cover spotlighting their time on tour.

Micky Dolenz gave sister Coco a shoutout for nailing ‘The Monkees’ album cover View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Micky Dolenz (@micky_dolenz)

During a Covid-friendly sit-down with the two surviving members of The Monkees at the time, fans got to ask the questions on “Live Q&a with Micky and Mike!” While thanking those involved, the drummer and vocalist revealed that his sister Coco had unknowingly taken the photo they used on their live...

In 1966, Micky Dolenz was a former child actor cast as one-fourth of The Monkees. While he had some musical skills, drumming was not one of them. However, Micky’s outgoing personality and professional resume endeared him to producers, and he admits to being hired to play the part of “a wacky drummer” on the beloved ABC series.

Micky Dolenz | Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images Micky Dolenz talks ‘lightening in a bottle’ aspect of making ‘The Monkees’

In an interview with Guitar World, Micky discussed how he, Mike Nesmith, Davy Jones, and Peter Tork were unique talents that created an unforgettable screen and recording industry mix. Micky said the casting of The Monkees TV series was like “lightning in a bottle.”

Micky said, “One of the producers once said, ‘They caught lightning in a bottle.’ They cast four guys with different talents and voices but could all sing and act, to some degree.

When looking back at his days as a member of the TV show The Monkees, Micky Dolenz has no illusions about what he had gotten himself involved with. The media and everybody out there may have claimed that the show was created in direct response to The Beatles, and the creation of the band within it to more or less cash in on their success, but he doesn’t agree. In this exclusive interview, Micky explains, “I was happy being cast into a show. Not the member of a band, but the member of a cast in a television show about a band. That’s a fine distinction, but an important one. I was playing the role of the wacky drummer, and part of that job was they’d say, ‘Okay, on Tuesday night you’re going to record a lead vocal for a couple of songs,’ or sometimes two...

When was the last time you thought about The Iron Horse? Or The Time Tunnel? How about The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.? All are television shows that premiered the second week of September in 1966, and all have effectively faded from memory. Not so with The Monkees, the groundbreaking TV-music-performance project that ran amok across the late '60s pop cultural landscape like Frankenstein's multimedia monster. 50 years later, it's still very much alive.

Earlier this year, the three surviving Monkees reunited in the studio with producer Adam Schlesinger – a veteran of the uber-poppy Fountains of Wayne and the tunesmith behind the brilliant...

When was the last time you thought about The Iron Horse? Or The Time Tunnel? How about The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.? All are television shows that premiered the second week of September in 1966, and all have effectively faded from memory. Not so with The Monkees, the groundbreaking TV-music-performance project that ran amok across the late '60s pop cultural landscape like Frankenstein's multimedia monster. 50 years later, it's still very much alive. Earlier this year, the three surviving Monkees reunited in the studio with producer Adam Schlesinger - a veteran of the uber-poppy Fountains of Wayne and the tunesmith behind the...

Micky Dolenz has said that Davy Jones was like a brother to him. The Monkees drummer paid tribute to his former bandmate on Piers Morgan Tonight, saying that he had hoped news of Jones's death yesterday at the age of 66 was a hoax. > The Monkees' greatest songs: Video "David and I sort of hit it off pretty early and quickly because we both had histories in showbiz," Dolenz said. "I had a series when I was a kid called Circus Boy, and he'd been on Broadway doing Oliver, so we sort of had a lot in common. Over the years, y'know, our families and he and I... we bonded. I mean, after 47 years working with people like that... he was like my brother, we were like siblings." (more)...