They certainly had the best songwriters and musicians working for them.
“They certainly had the best songwriters and musicians working for them.”
Agreed...I recently read Carole King was one of them.
Yeah, many people don't realize the actors playing the Monkees had very little to do with the music and it's one of the main reasons they canceled the show. They hated not having any creative control especially Nesmith and Torqe. Don Kirshner wanted them to perform his prefabbed song by studio musicians called "Sugar Sugar". That was the breaking point for Nesmith. He wanted nothing to do with that bubble gum song and had a fit on set.
"Sugar Sugar" Became a big hit using Kirshner's new show. It was the band The Archies if I remember correctly and it was debuted on Kirshner's Saturday cartoon show, I forget what that was called.
There's a good little documentary on YouTube that covers the whole Monkees vs Don Kirshner fiasco.