Legendary Rock Band The Monkees' Farewell Tour — Dates and Other Details

The surviving members of The Monkees, Micky Dolenz and Mike Nesmith, have announced a fall tour to commemorate 55 Years of Monkeemania wrapping up at the Greek Theater In Los Angeles On November 14, promising “a magical night of music: all the hits, deep cuts and fan favorites.”

The tour will feature songs that “span the band’s entire career — from their 1966 self-titled debut album to 2016’s Good Times!” according to a press release announcing the tour.

They will perform not only their hits but also songs from their Emmy-winning eponymous TV series and feature film. 

The band last toured in 2019 and was initially booked again for 2020, but the pandemic forced them to postpone those plans. With some time in their hands, Dolenz recorded an LP of Nesmith-penned songs called 'Dolenz Sings Nesmith,' which comes out on May 21.

This farewell tour will conclude Dolenz and Nesmith’s career that, at its late-‘60s peak, rivaled those of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.

The Monkees Was Originally Made-for-TV Band

The group got its start in the mid-1960s when Columbia Pictures was hunting for “insane boys, age 17-21” for a television sitcom about a rock group. From the 400 applicants, Nesmith, Dolenz, Davy Jones, and Peter Tork were the chosen cast. 

However, only Nesmith and Tork were experienced musicians and had a flair for playing comedy, while Dolenz and Jones were primarily actors who had dabbled a little into pop music but had strong vocal abilities. 

The boys often got a bad rap from the music press for not writing their own material or playing the instruments on their records. But with time, they vindicated themselves when Nesmith’s songwriting skills impressed the producers enough to allow them to take control of their creative process.

The sitcom launched the quartet into a proper self-sufficient rock band. They debuted in the fall of 1966, and their first single, 'Last Train to Clarksville,' became a number one hit, and their eponymous debut album topped the charts. 

By the 70s, The Group Quietly Dissolved

The Monkees were a huge hit, and dozens of Monkees-related products from toy guitars and lunch boxes to board games and models of the custom Pontiac the guys drove on the show flooded the market.

By the time the sitcom ended after two successful seasons, the Monkees had released three more albums in 1967 that topped the charts — More of the Monkees, Headquarters, and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd. 

The band had also accumulated several hit singles that found their way to the Billboard Top 40. By the end of 2.5 years, they had sold 16 million albums and 7.5 million singles. However, the following feature film, Head, and album releases after their sitcom ended did not see commercial success. 

It was clear that their early commercial fortunes waned off, and by the 1970s, all group members went their own way.