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 the Monkees" that album sales were outstripping Nielsen ratings, meaning that more people were buying the music than watching the television show, which meant that the producers decided that more attention needed to be paid to the music and that more music needed to be produced for more albums. Sandoval also noted that their second album, "More of the Monkees", propelled by their second single, "I'm a Believer" b/w "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone", became the biggest selling LP of their career, spending 70 weeks on the Billboard charts, staying No. 1 for 18 weeks, becoming the third biggest selling