Like so many others who were 10-ish in the early 1970s, I immediately thought of Marcia Brady when I heard Wednesday that the Monkees’ Davy Jones had died of a heart attack at age 66. Forty years ago, kids, when our television viewing was limited to the three major networks — ABC, CBS and NBC — the best family option on Friday nights at 7 was “The Brady Bunch.” In December 1971, ABC aired what is possibly the series’ best-known episode [1], “Getting Davy Jones,” in which Marcia (Maureen McCormick), president of her school’s Davy Jones fan club, foolishly tells her classmates that she can get Jones to perform at the school’s prom. Long story short, after a round of misinterpretation, misunderstanding and misguided effort by Marcia, Jones not only agrees to sing at the prom but he also asks Marcia if he can go as her date.
The Monkees — the band — officially broke up the same year Marcia Brady got Davy Jones, though “The Monkees” — the TV show — had been off the air for almost four years. “The Monkees” was a flash in the pan; it first aired on NBC in September 1966 [2] and was cancelled only 17 months later, in February 1968. Jones was trying to establish a solo act when he made his guest appearance on “The Brady Bunch,” but by then he had major competition on the teen heartthrob front — David Cassidy of “The Partridge Family” was the new Davy Jones — and his eponymous 1971 solo album and the singles from it did not sell well.
“The Monkees” was never a ratings hit but the Monkees was a record-selling phenomenon. The show had been created to exploit and, to a lesser and subtler extent, spoof Beatlemania, and its madcap antics mimicked the Beatles’ first film, “A Hard Day’s Night.” Critics dismissed the Monkees as the Prefab Four, as opposed to the Beatles’ Fab Four, and lost no chance to point out that Jones and his band mates — Micky Dolenz, Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork — didn’t play their own instruments on their early records (though Nesmith was a guitarist and Tork a multi-instrumentalist, and Nesmith was soon writing songs for the band). The show’s producers had the last laugh on the critics. The Monkees’ first two albums — “The Monkees” and “More of the Monkees” — had a combined 31-week run atop the U.S. album charts in 1966-67, according to Billboard. Two other albums also hit No. 1.
Casting for “The Monkees” could have changed rock music. Stephen Stills auditioned for the show and came dangerously close to getting the role that eventually went to Peter Tork (a friend whom Stills recommended to the show’s producers after they rejected him). I say “dangerously close” because around the time he was trying out for the Monkees, Stills was also forming Buffalo Springfield with Neil Young, Richie Furay, Bruce Palmer and Dewey Martin. Put Stills in the Monkees and a whole chapter of rock music vanishes [3]. I’d like to think that Neil Young’s talent eventually would have brought him some version of the fame and respect he now enjoys but would there have been a Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young [4] or a Poco or a Loggins and Messina if Stills had been cast as a Monkee? Doubtful.