The Monkees minute believes that we are somehow this accomplished rock 'n' roll band that got their own television show. ... you putting the record out like this is just beyond the pale." Within a few months of their debut album, Music Supervisor Don Kirshner would be forcibly dismissed and the Monkees would take control as a real band. The Monkees' first single, "Last Train to Clarksville" b/w "Take a Giant Step", was released in August 1966, just weeks prior to the TV broadcast debut. In conjunction with the first broadcast of the television show on September 12, 1966, on the NBC
Took the Last Train number 7 for three weeks on the Adult Contemporary chart. The song was similarly successful in Canada. Took the Last Train "Took the Last Train" is a single released by David Gates, lead singer of the group Bread, in 1978 following the premiere of the hit movie "The Goodbye Girl", and as a follow-up to the title track hit song from the album of the same name. The song contains French lyrics, which are then followed by the translation in English. The 'last train' goes to St-Tropez, a town on the French Riviera. "Took the Last Train" reached number 30