Mike Nesmith, one of the members of the Monkees, has passed away today.  He was 78 Years Old.

Nesmith was cast as one of the members of the Monkees, a show on NBC, designed to capitalize of Beatlemania, specifically a weekly variation of Hard Day’s Night.  It was a monster smash, with the group churning out hits, but behind the scenes, Nesmith and other members of the group wanted musical freedom, which they would eventually obtain.

Nesmith, who played bass in the group, was a visionary and drove the group to write and perform their own music, and most notably, he wrote “Mary Mary” for the group.  He also wrote “Different Drum”, a song that was rejected by the rest of the group, and would be given to Linda Ronstadt and her group, the Stone Ponies. 

The Monkees broke up, and Nesmith embarked on a solo career, but it did not generate many sales.  Where he was successful, was in the video medium, as shown by one of his early music videos when the idea was still novel.  He would later put together a program called “Pop Clips” of music videos for Nickelodeon, which would be the impetus for MTV.

Nesmith would also become a movie producer, having funded films such as “Repo Man” and “Tapeheads”.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to extend our condolences to the fans, friends and family of Mike Nesmith.

It was announced today that Peter Tork, former member of the Monkees passed away today at the age of 77.

Tork auditioned for and got the role as one of the musicians for the Don Kischner network program, The Monkees in 1966.  While Tork and the other members of the group (Davy Jones, Micheael Nesmith and Mickey Dolenz) were musicians in their first two albums they did not write or play any of the music, which at the time made them a very polarizing band as in terms of pop songs of the era few had any better, however they were also not viewed as legitimate by others.

The group would eventually tour and prove their musical acumen and Tork was able to show off that ability with his ability to play multiple instruments and he would later write songs and produce.  Sadly for Tork and the rest of the Monkees when their show ended their fame soon followed and no member of the band would be able to shed their musical past, at least when they tried to perform anyway.  

The group (sans Nesmith) would reunite and their legacy of being a fun band reemerged and many of their hits are still well known today.  

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to extend our condolences to the friends, family and fans of Peter Tork.

This is a big day for us.

After three rounds, the Preliminary, the Semi-Finals and the Finals, the Fictitious Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has announced the first class after one full year of online voting from all of you.

We are pleased to announce that the Blues Brothers, Spinal Tap and the Monkees have been selected by all of you as the first full class of the Fictitious Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Portrayed by Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, the Blues Brothers received the most votes.  “Joliet” Jake and Elwood Blues fronted an all-star band that was originally seen on Saturday Night Live.  In their 1980 feature film, the siblings were on “a mission from God” and inadvertently introduced classic blues music to a new generation.

Finishing second in the vote was Spinal Tap, who were also portrayed by Saturday Night Live alumnus.  Michael McKean (David St. Hubbins), Christopher Guest (Nigel Tufnel) and Harry Shearer (Derek Smalls) created what is considered to be the best “mockumentary” of all time and is considered a classic. 

The final inductees of the first class are the Monkees, who were assembled to portray a fictional band but would later become one.  The Monkees (Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork and Mickey Dolenz) were one of the most successful pop groups of the 1960’s.

These three inductees beat out the following finalists (in order of their vote totals) in the Final Round:



- Dr. Teeth & the Electric Mayhem (The Muppets)

- Tenacious D (Tenacious D)

- The Wonders (That Thing You Do!)

- Otis Day & The Knights (Animal House)

- Wyld Stallyns (Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure)

- Eddie and the Cruisers (Eddie and the Cruisers)

- The Commitments (The Commitments)

- Ricky Ricardo (I Love Lucy)

- Alvin and the Chipmunks

- The Archies (The Archie Show)

- The School of Rock (School of Rock)

- Stillwater (Almost Famous)


Voting is now open for the Preliminary round for the 2016 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class. 

Like last year, there will be a Preliminary round leading to 40 Semi-Finalist Candidates, which will pared down to 15 Finalists. 

The site can be found here: http://www.notinhalloffame.com/fictitious-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame



We encourage you all to cast your vote for next year and thank you for your support for this endeavor!

Many of the musicians on this list create a polarizing opinion as to their “validity”. In the latter half of the 1960’s, there likely was no group that separated fans as much the Monkees did. Their bubblegum image and status as a corporate creation were labels that they couldn’t shake, and despite the fun solid music they made they were a group that was not considered “cool” at their height.

The Monkees (1966-68)

We debated a long time whether this should be on the ballot or not, in fact it may have given us a migraine or two.  At the end of the day we decided to let all of you decide their fate, and you told us loud and clear by placing them in the Fictitious Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on the first ballot.

The origin of the group came from television executives looking to follow a fictional band in the vein of the Beatles’ Hard Days Night film.  With Davy Jones already under contract after a successful run on Broadway, three more cast members were needed and after an exhaustive search, Mickey Dolenz, Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith were cast.

The show was an instant hit and the Monkees became stars.  Pop songs were written for them and with the regular television exposure they had, they were able to generate a lot of Billboard success, though on most of the songs they didn’t play an instrument on the recording, though on later songs they did.

This is where it gets a little muddled as the foursome were billed on the album as the creators and would go out on tour performing those songs to the delight of thousands of kids.

That is where they ran into problems as a group like the Monkees is the type that older music fans and music critics want to take down.  Ironically, it was Michael Nesmith who did it for them.  We’ll let him explain from an article in the Saturday Evening Post:

“The music had nothing to do with us. It was totally dishonest. Do you know how debilitating it is to sit up and have to duplicate somebody else's records? That's really what we're doing. The music happened in spite of the Monkees. It was what (Don) Kirshner wanted to do. Our records are not our forte. I don't care if we never sell another record. Maybe we were manufactured...Tell the world we're synthetic because we are. Tell them The Monkees are wholly man-made overnight that millions of dollars have been poured into this thing. Tell the world we don't record our own music. But that's us they see on television. That show is really a part of us. They're not seeing something invalid.

The press decided they were going to unload on us as being somehow illegitimate, somehow false. That we were making an attempt to dupe the public, when in fact it was me that was making the attempt to maintain the integrity. So, the press went into a full-scale war against us. Telling us The Monkees are four guys who have no credits, no credibility whatsoever, who have been trying to trick us into believing that they are a rock band. Number one, not only was it not the case, the reverse was true. Number two, [for] the press to report with genuine alarm that The Monkees were not a real rock band was looney tunes. It was one of the great goofball moments of the media, but it stuck.”

Actually, that sums it up perfectly.

Regardless of how you saw the Monkees, the fact remains that this was one of the most successful groups of the 1960’s and they have a catalogue of hits that hold up very well.

The Fictitious Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is excited (and admittedly a little surprised) to welcome the Monkees to the Hall.


The Bullet Points:
TV Show Appeared:
The Monkees (1966-68)

Actors:
Davy Jones
Peter Tork
Mickey Dolenz
Michael Nesmith

Songs you might remember:
We’re the Monkees
Last Train to Clarksville
I’m a Believer
Daydream Believer
Valleri

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