Mike Nesmith’s Big ‘Lie’ Became the Truth About The Monkees, The Beatles, and Rolling Stones
The Monkees guitarist Mike Nesmith sat for interviews hundreds of times. Nesmith knew how to navigate difficult situations with the press. However, during one particular sit-down, the entertainer decided to have a little fun. Nesmith admitted the big “lie” he told a reporter suddenly became the truth about The Monkees, The Beatles, and Rolling Stones.
Mike Nesmith and The Monkees achieved many feats as a band
The Monkees first album hit the Billboard charts one month after their eponymous television series debuted on NBC. The Monkees charted on Billboard for 78 weeks and remained at number one for 13 weeks.
The band set a record in 1967 that no other act has equaled: They became the first and only act to have four No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 in a calendar year, reported Billboard. Since March 1956, when the Billboard 200 began publishing, no other act has had four No. 1 albums in a calendar year. Only eight musical acts have had three No. 1 albums in a calendar year, including The Beatles and Elvis Presley.
The Monkees television series also won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy in 1967.
Mike Nesmith’s big ‘lie’ became the truth
Nesmith revealed how a big “lie” he told became the truth in his autobiography Infinite Tuesday. It was November 1977, and Nesmith spoke to an interviewer.
“As we sat down for the interview, before he asked the first question, I told him that I would lie to him. He was taken aback, then seemed a little nonplussed and asked why. I said it was because I didn’t trust the press, that I didn’t expect him to tell the truth, so neither would I,” Nesmith wrote.
“I said that some of the things I would say would be true and some false, and it was up to him to figure out which was which, according to the normal standards of journalistic responsibility,” the musician explained. “He asked how he would tell the difference between when I was lying and telling the truth, and I said, “You won’t. That is the point of the lie.”
“Then came the point where he asked me about the sales of the Monkees records, and I saw the chance. It isn’t too well known, I said flatly, that we sold over thirty-five million records in 1967. More than the Beatles and the Rolling Stones combined. He diligently wrote all this down, and I wondered for a moment if I had chosen too outrageous a lie to tell, but it turned out it had been just right.
“The next day in the paper, there it was, printed as fact,” Nesmith concluded.
‘The Monkees’ producers duped fans
While other syndicated series remained unchanged, The Monkees continued to evolve after its finale episode. Two significant changes occurred when The Monkees moved into syndication, duping fans.
The Monkees aired in reruns beginning in the fall of 1969 through Sept. 1972 on a new network, CBS. After that, the show moved to ABC, which aired the series until the summer of 1973. In 1975, The Monkees television series was sold to local markets for syndication.
At that time, a new generation of The Monkees viewers was duped, beginning with how they saw the series. For example, all season 1 episodes of The Monkees started with the season 2 opener.
A second sneaky switch included music featured on The Monkees.
Over the summer of 1967, NBC reran multiple episodes of The Monkees with revised soundtracks to promote the band’s album Headquarters and its subsequent singles. Between 1969 and 1973, both CBS and ABC edited the soundtracks again to promote the band’s later albums, The Monkees Present and Changes.
