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TL;DR:

  • Peter Tork resented the idea that the member of The Monkees were disposable.
  • He felt the band’s producers got good performers for the job although they didn’t want “professionals.”
  • Each member of the group contributed something that made the Prefab Four a classic bubblegum band.
The Monkees' Mike Nesmith, Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, and Peter Tork in front of a curtain
The Monkees | Bettmann / Contributor

The Monkees weren’t always the most critically respected group. Subsequently, The Monkees’ Peter Tork said the band couldn’t have just been “any four guys.” He was right about the Prefab Four.

The Monkees’ Peter Tork felt his band’s members had ‘a certain magic’

It’s well known that The Beatles’s work, particularly their comedy films A Hard Day’s Night and Help!, were a big influence on The Monkees’ sitcom. During a 2013 interview with Guitar World, Tork discussed the connection. “The producers [of the TV show] were Beatles fans themselves,” he said. “They weren’t just old, cigar-chomping TV producers going, ‘Kids will love this.’ They didn’t want professional kids, really.

“Well, Davy was professional, but he had a lot of spark and Micky was a funny guy from the start, so they knew they were getting something interesting,” Tork added. “But I refute any claims that any four guys could’ve done what we did. There was a magic to that collection. We couldn’t have chosen each other. It wouldn’t have flown. But under the circumstances, they got the right guys.”

What Micky Dolenz thought made The Monkees’ music and television special

Notably, The Monkees’ Micky Dolenz offered his take on the situation. “One of the producers once said, ‘They caught lightning in a bottle,'” he recalled. “They cast four guys that had different talents and different voices but could all sing and act, to some degree.

“When we started singing together and blending, we weren’t starting from square one,” he said. “We had fundamental skills; then it came down to arrangement and harmonizing, and then we sort of got lucky.” Doenz felt he and Mike Nesmith were very good at harmonizing. Nesmith said the group gelled, calling it a “happy accident.”

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Why Peter Tork’s assessment of the Prefab Four was completely correct

Tork is correct that “any four guys” couldn’t have been the Prefab Four each one of them proved their talent. For example, Nesmith wrote several famous songs by the band, including “The Girl I Knew Somewhere” and “Tapioca Tundra.” In addition, Dolenz wrote the psychedelic song “Randy Scouse Git.” The Official Charts Company reports that song was a big hit in the United Kingdom. He also performed lead vocals on many of the band’s most famous tunes, including “I’m a Believer” and “Last Train to Clarksville.”

Jones was a great singer too, and infused Prefab Four songs with his Broadway professionalism. He was able to communicate emotion well with his voice, which is part of what makes “Daydream Believer” an enduring classic. Tork was also an interesting presence and brought a lot of color to the band’s sitcom.

Tork, Dolenz, Nesmith, and Jones all contributed something to The Monkees and that’s why the band is still popular today.

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