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 Nesmith from the Monkees original incarnation would be their eighth album, "The Monkees Present", released in October 1969, which peaked at No. 100 on the Billboard charts. It would include the Nesmith composed country-rock singles "Listen to the Band" and "Good Clean Fun" (released in September 1969). Other notable songs include the Dolenz composition "Little Girl", which featured Louie Shelton on electric guitar, joining Micky on acoustic guitar, along with "Mommy and Daddy" (B-side to the "Good Clean Fun single) in which he sang about America's treatment of the Native Americans and drug abuse, and in an earlier take, released