The Monkees’ Peter Tork Explained Why Other Musicians ‘Cranked Out’ His Band’s 1st 2 Albums
The Monkees‘ Peter Tork said his band’s first two albums, The Monkees and More of the Monkees, were mostly made by others. He said he was upset he had little input in the albums. On the other hand, he said there was a good reason why the Prefab Four had little creative control over their early music.
The Monkees’ Peter Tork said the band’s schedule didn’t ‘letup’ in the early years
During a 2016 interview with The Baltimore Sun, Tork was asked how his band was able to work on a sitcom and albums at the same time. “We were very lucky at one level,” Tork replied. “The first two albums were pretty much made by studio musicians, with one or another of us singing lead. So they were cranking this stuff out while they were cranking out a TV show.”
“You know, at the time, I was a little upset about it, because I wanted to be part of the record-making process myself,” he said. “But as I look back on it, they were making a TV show, and we were at work on a soundstage from 7:30 in the morning until 7 at night without letup. We weren’t going to make any records.”
Peter Tork said the members of the band were not ‘terribly good’ in the beginning
Tork discussed his band’s skills during their early years. “We didn’t really exactly know how, even. Michael, better than I,” he said. “But none of us was terribly good at it yet.”
He also discussed the band members’ roles in the Prefab For phenomenon. “When you really get down, the four of us — Micky, Mike, Davy and me — really were, in some ways, almost more figureheads than anything else, for the longest time,” he recalled.
How The Monkees’ 1st 2 albums performed on the pop charts in the United States and the United Kingdom
The Prefab Four’s debut album, The Monkees, topped the Billboard 200 for 13 weeks. It stayed on the chart for a total of 102 weeks. It stayed on the chart for a longer amount of time than any of the group’s later albums. Meanwhile, its single “Last Train to Clarksville” became the group’s first No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100.
Meanwhile, More of the Monkees was No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for 18 weeks, remaining on the chart for 96 weeks altogether. The album produced two hit singles: “I’m a Believer” and “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone.” The former reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 while the latter reached No. 20.
The Prefab Four had little to do with their first two albums but those albums include some iconic hits.
