Even with the one of a kind vocals of “Circus Boy” TV star Mickey Dolenz, the Herman’s Hermits pluck of Vaudeville pop singer Davy Jones and the Brian Jones aura of bassist Peter Tork, the real genius of the Monkees was in the band’s chief songwriter and guitarist Michael Nesmith. With their now historic Monday night TV show, The Monkees, from the time of their September 1966 prime time debut, were accustomed to working with pioneering pop songwriters such as Gerry Goffin, Barry Mann, Neil Diamond and Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. It would be on the third and fourth Monkees album albums, both from 1967—Headquarters and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones LTD.—that Nesmith really stepped forth with some great unheralded singing and song writing. Having famous personalities like Dolenz and Jones in the band, Nesmith’s contributions may have been overlooked forty + years ago but they’re well worth revisiting on Rhino’s CD reissue of both of these Monkees album classics from 1967. These 2007 Rhino reissues follow suit putting together mono and stereo versions of both albums, complete with ample bonus cuts and single masters. www.themonkees.com

Attention Artists and Record Companies: Have your CD reviewed by mwe3.com. Send to: MWE3.com CD Reviews Editor Robert Silverstein, P.O. Box 630249, Little Neck, N.Y. 11363-0249 E-mail: breakthru87@mwe3.com