The Monkees

With any number of punkish bar bands semi-ironically recycling "Steppin' Stone" in the late '70s, and a partially reunited Monkees touring and recording in the '80s, there's been a revisionist twist upward in appraisals of this band's slight canon. Cynically manufactured by Don Kirshner and a crew of TV producers looking to dilute A Hard Day's Night for the boob tube, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, Mickey Dolenz, and Peter Tork were the fill-in fab four who lip synched their way through a few seasons of sitcoms and most of their albums (on later product, they did play on some songs). Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, Neil Diamond, and Nesmith wrote the Monkees' 1966–68 hits: "Last Train to Clarksville," "Daydream Believer," "I'm a Believer," and "Pleasant Valley Sunday." Clever and tuneful, along the lines of knockoff Turtles, this was teenybop fare that provoked shudders from anyone who took the Beatles at all seriously. Those teenyboppers grew up and, in a frenzy of nostalgia, reclaimed their idols. The first greatest-hits package is pleasant -- and more than enough Monkees for everyone except cultists. Pool It! (1987), the reunion album, is glossy, tired, and redundant. The two-CD Anthology and certainly the elaborate box set Music Box take the bunch far too seriously. (PAUL EVANS)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide