In September 1965 this ad appeared in the Hollywood reporter:
Madness!! Auditions. Folk & Roll Musicians-Singers for acting roles in new TV series. Running Parts for 4 insane boys, age 17-21. Want spirited Ben Frank's types. Have courage to work. Must come down for interview.
The Monkees Photo: supplied
Micky Dolenz decided to throw his hat in the ring and was one of many who replied to the ad and showed up at the auditions.
It was typical audition for a television show, he says.
However, as the auditions went on, he realised this was more than a normal television show.
You had to be able to sing, act, play and instrument and of course, be funny.
A guitar player himself, Mickey auditioned for the music component with Chuck Perry’s Johnny B Good.
He scored the gig and along with the other successful candidates, became The Monkees - a hit TV series, several albums, hit songs and several re-unions.
There were two or three other music shows in the making that year, and Dolenz auditioned for them too, but The Monkees was different.
“Even after the first interview, I remember thinking this is different, this is kind of, this is crazy and a bit different than the typical Hollywood studio produced television shows.”
He says The Monkees wasn’t a band, it was an imaginary band - a TV show about a group that wanted to be The Beatles.
“On the television show we never made it. It was the struggle for success that I think had a lot to do with endearing it to all those kids around the country and the world who were sitting in their living rooms, and basements, and garages and practicing and playing, wanting to be famous, wanting to be The Beatles – that’s what The Monkees was about.”
It was a hard show to produce, the group were working for 10-12 hours every day, sometimes more.
And there were only two seasons, but each season had 26 episodes – the equivalent of a 5 or 6 year run these days.
Despite all of the work he was putting in, Dolenz had no idea just how big The Monkees phenomenon would get.
“I didn’t realise until months after the show was on the air and the record had gone up to number one, we were sort of… incommunicado filming the tv show. It wasn’t really until we started going on the road that it became apparent about how big it really was.”
The band sold more albums that The Beatles and The Rolling Stones combined.
Now days it’s not uncommon to have three generations at a show, he says.
“I put it down to the music, the wealth of material written by at that time and even to this day, some of the greatest songwriters of any generation Tommy Boyson, Bobby Heart, Neil Diamond, Carol King etc. those people don’t people don’t write a lot of duck tunes.”
More than 50 years on, he’s making his way back to New Zealand with the other surviving member of the band, Michael Nesmith, for a two-hour show of The Monkees’ greatest hits.
