The Monkees (album) scheduled around the work done by Boyce, Hart, and Keller. Famously, the Monkees were not permitted by their management to function as a working band for this album, with the group's contributions limited almost entirely to vocal tracks. Eight of the original LP's twelve tracks feature one lone Monkee singing lead vocal over instrumentation and backing vocals recorded entirely by a group of session musicians which varies from song to song. Other tracks feature multiple Monkees singing over session players; only on the two tracks produced by Michael Nesmith does a Monkee (Peter Tork) get to play an instrument (guitar).
The Monkees surviving Monkees, two songs feature vocals from Davy Jones. The cover art is provided by the comic book artists Mike and Laura Allred. Controversy hit early in 1967 concerning the Monkees' studio abilities. Dolenz told a reporter that the Wrecking Crew provided the backing tracks for the first two Monkees albums, and that his origin as a drummer was simply that a Monkee had to learn to play the drums, and he only knew the guitar. A January 28, 1967 "Saturday Evening Post" article quoted Nesmith railing against the music creation process. "Do you know how debilitating it is to