crash 👑 COMMS OPEN

60 years ago today, on the Billboard album chart dated November 12, 1966, The Monkees went to No. 1. The TV show had premiered on NBC two months earlier, on September 12, and Last Train to Clarksville had just topped the singles chart the week before. The album came out on Colgems on October 10 and climbed to the top in its sixth week on the chart. It stayed there for 13 weeks, and when it finally came down, the record that knocked it off was More of the Monkees, which held No. 1 for another 18 weeks. That's 31 straight weeks at the top with their first two albums. People still argue about how much of the playing on this record was the band and how much was session players. But Micky Dolenz sang lead on Clarksville, Mike Nesmith produced his own Papa Gene's Blues and Sweet Young Thing, and within a year the four of them fought for and won the right to play on their own records. We lost Davy Jones in 2012, Peter Tork in 2019 and Mike Nesmith in 2021. Micky is out on his 60 Years of the Monkees tour this fall. Pick one from this album: Last Train to Clarksville, Saturday's Child, Papa Gene's Blues or I Wanna Be Free.