Popular music has long marketed performers to the youth market. The Monkees were different because the band was put together with the express purpose of being the center of an integrated marketing empire that included a television show as well as the standard records and concerts and lunch boxes.

Like the prepackaged pop stars of today, the Prefab Four had some great songwriters working for them. That’s why their music endures.

Atomic Kitten “Daydream Believer” (The Monkees)
It’s somehow appropriate that a prefab pop band would cover a song by an earlier prefab pop band. Andy McCluskey of Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark put this bunch of pop tarts together to move product in the European market. The result is this frothy and utterly nonthreatening synthesizer-heavy confection.

Cassandra Wilson “Last Train To Clarksville” (The Monkees)
I’ve never thought of this song (or any other Monkees song for that matter) as a jazz song. Cassandra Wilson really does a great job with it.

Code Of Ethics “Pleasant Valley Sunday” (The Monkees)
I stumbled across this song and liked the arrangement. Then I discovered that this band was a 90s New-Wave Christian band. It’s like they covered this song just so people could play “what thing is not like the others” with one of their albums.

The Sex Pistols “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone” (The Monkees)
This song was originally recorded by Paul Revere & The Raiders, but the Monkees cover is certainly the best-known version. The lyrics are pretty bitter, quite a departure from most of the rest of the Monkees canon. Which of course makes it a perfect song for everybody’s favorite snotty punk band.

Micky Dolenz “I Whistle A Happy Tune” (Rodgers and Hammerstein, from The King And I)
Micky Dolenz, kazoos, and a jaw harp. What more could you possibly want?

This comes from an album called Broadway Micky, which is apparently what Mr. Dolenz did between Monkees reunion tours in the 1980s. From the title you’d think that it was a collection of show tunes, but that’s not entirely true because it also includes a terrible cover of “Me And My Arrow” from Harry Nilsson’s wonderful animated TV special The Point! The album seems to be aimed more at children, with Mr. Dolenz trying way too hard to be wacky.