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 directly to Kirshner's later venture, "The Archies", which was an animated series—the "stars" existed only on animation cels, with music done by studio musicians, and obviously could not seize creative control over the records issued under their name. Screen Gems held the publishing rights to a wealth of material, with the Monkees being offered the first choice of many new songs. Due to the abundance of material numerous tracks were recorded but left unreleased, until Rhino Records started releasing them through the Missing Links series of albums, starting in the late 1980s. A rumor persists that the Monkees were offered