Then & Now... The Best of The Monkees Then & Now... The Best of The Monkees Then & Now... the Best of The Monkees is a compilation album of songs by the 1960s American pop group The Monkees, released by Arista Records in 1986. With the 1986 revival of "Monkeemania," Arista Records issued a new Monkees "best of" collection, including three new recordings featuring vocals by Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork: "That Was Then, This Is Now," "Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere" and a remake of the Paul Revere and the Raiders hit, "Kicks." Neither Michael Nesmith nor Davy Jones participated in the new recordings. Nesmith also did not join
The Monkees would become "The Monkees". Not getting much interest from his usual stable of Brill Building writers, Kirshner assigned Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart to the project. The duo contributed four demo recordings for the pilot. One of these recordings was "(Theme From) The Monkees" which helped get the series the green light. When "The Monkees" was picked up as a series, development of the musical side of the project accelerated. Columbia-Screen Gems and RCA Victor entered into a joint venture called Colgems Records primarily to distribute Monkees records. Raybert set up a rehearsal space and rented instruments for the group