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TL;DR:

  • The Lovin’ Spoonful tried out for The Monkees’ show.
  • The Monkees’ creators chose not to cast The Lovin’ Spoonful in the program.
  • The Lovin’ Spoonful had many hit singles in the United States.
The Monkees at a piano
The Monkees | Michael Ochs Archives / Stringer

The Lovin’ Spoonful tried out for the television program that became The Monkees‘ show. The Monkees’ creators had a strong reaction to their audition. Despite this, they decided not to cast The Lovin’ Spoonful.

The Monkees’ co-creator said the Prefab Four’s show was inspired by his time as a teenage musician

Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider were the co-creators of The Monkees. The band has long been compared to The Beatles. During a 2012 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Rafelson discussed how the premise of the show came together. 

“This was a show I had written six years before The Beatles existed, and the pilot was based on my own life as an itinerant musician when I was 17 years old,” Rafelson said. “What The Beatles did was to create a kind of permission for any rock ‘n’ roll to be a popular subject for television.”

Rafelson said The Lovin’ Spoonful tried out to be in the show. “We were much more interested in putting the band together according to what we thought would make a good television group,” he said.

“Just because somebody had a hit record out doesn’t mean they’re going to be either a good TV actor or that they would blend well on the screen,” Rafelson added. “We quickly got past that idea. But we were flattered that people who had such extraordinary reputations as the Spoonful wanted to do the show.”

The Monkees’ songwriters drew inspiration from The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and other 1960s bands

The connection between The Monkees and The Lovin’ Spoonful did not end there. Bobby Hart and Tommy Boyce co-wrote many Monkees tunes. In his 2015 book Psychedelic Bubble Gum: Boyce & Hart, The Monkees, and Turning Mayhem Into Miracles, Hart said he and Boyce sat down with a piece of paper after they got a job writing for The Monkees.

On the paper, they listed the names of several bands they wanted to take inspiration from while making songs for The Monkees. The initial list included The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Hollies, Herman’s Hermits, The Turtles, Tommy James and the Shondells, The Rascals, and Paul Revere & the Raiders.

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Many of The Lovin’ Spoonful’s songs became hit singles in the United States

While The Lovin’ Spoonful didn’t star on The Monkees’ show, they did find success. Seven of the group’s songs reached the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100.

The songs in question were “Do You Believe In Magic,” “You Didn’t Have To Be So Nice,” “Daydream,” “Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?,” “Nashville Cats,” “Rain on the Roof,” and “Summer In The City.” The latter song reached no. 1 on the chart for three weeks.

The Lovin’ Spoonful and The Monkees are both iconic bands and they have unique connections to each other.

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