When “The Monkees” makes its Blu-ray debut as a limited edition box set on January 29, 2016, it will arrive with enough bonus material
to stuff the trunk of the Monkeemobile. Aside from the feature film Head, the most important of these
bonuses will be alternate song tracks that Monkee-wrangler Andrew Sandoval
recently announced will be part of the set. These tracks are so important because
not all of us were lucky enough to watch the series when it originally aired. So
if you caught episodes for the first time as reruns during the summer 1967
hiatus or as Saturday afternoon reruns during the 1969-1970 season, you may be
used to very different songs in certain episodes. In some cases, the
replacements greatly changed the tone of the episode. Imagine The Monkees
frugging in Hell (“The Devil and Peter Tork”) to the insipid “I Never Thought
It Peculiar” instead of the acidic “Salesman”. Whoops!
As someone who wasn’t even born during those years, I first
discovered “The Monkees” in the mid-80s when it aired on MTV, Nick-at-Night,
and in syndication on weekday mornings on channel 9 WOR-TV in New York. These
reruns were a jumble of the originally aired episodes, 1967 replacements, and
in a couple of cases, ’69/’70 replacements. As a nostalgia junkie, I long to
rewatch “The Monkees” with the songs I remember from my youth. In “Success
Story”, Davy forever broods on the beach to “Shades of Grey”, not “I Wanna Be
Free”. “Midnight Train” is the soundtrack to the guys getting ready for their
big party in “The Chaperone”, not “This Just Doesn’t Seem to Be My Day”.
Now, Sandoval apparently said that there will be alternate
song tracks for “some” episodes. This is either a reference to the fact that
only 32 of the 58 episodes aired with alternate songs or that only some of
those 32 episodes will appear with alternate songs. We will only know when
all the specs of the still-a-work-in-progress- box set are announced. In any
event, if only some of the episodes that aired with alternate songs are
included, you may want to figure out which ones are present and which ones are
absent. I know I will, but when I went looking for a guide to the episodes that
featured alternate songs in reruns, I couldn’t find one. Thanks a lot,
Internet! Steve Urkel has his own Wikipedia page, but I can’t find some pretty
basic information on one of the most enduring TV shows of the sixties.
So, with a little (lot of) help from Andrew Sandoval’s
essential book The Monkees: The Day-By-Day Story of the 60s TV Pop Sensation
I put together my own guide to
the alternate song tracks used on reruns of “The Monkees”. Maybe you’ll find it
useful too.
I put together my own guide to
the alternate song tracks used on reruns of “The Monkees”. Maybe you’ll find it
useful too.
1967: Summer
Hiatus Reruns
“Monkee See, Monkee Die”: “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit
You” replaces “Tomorrow’s Gonna Be Another Day”
“Royal Flush”: “You Told Me” replaces “This Just Doesn’t
Seem to Be My Die” and
“The Girl I Knew Somewhere” replaces “Take a Giant Step”
“The Girl I Knew Somewhere” replaces “Take a Giant Step”
“Monkee vs. Machine”: “You Told Me” replaces “Saturday’s
Child”
“Success Story”: “Shades of Grey” replaces “I Wanna Be Free”
“The Spy Who Came in from the Cool”: “Randy Scouse Git”
replaces “Saturday’s Child”
“Captain Crocodile”: “Pleasant Valley Sunday” replaces “Your Auntie Grizelda”
“Monkees in a Ghost Town”: “Words” replaces “Your Auntie
Grizelda”
“The Case of the Missing Monkee”: “Pleasant Valley Sunday”
replaces “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone”
“Monkee Chow Mein”: “Words” replaces “Your Auntie Grizelda”
“Here Come The Monkees”: “Shades of Grey” replaces “I Wanna
Be Free” (slow version)
“One Man Shy”: “Forget That Girl” replaces “I’m a Believer”
“The Monkees on Tour”: “Pleasant Valley Sunday” replaces
“The Girl I Knew Somewhere” and “Words” replaces “I’m a Believer”
1969-1970:
Saturday Afternoon Reruns
“I’ve Got a Little Song Here”: “For Pete's Sake” replaces “Mary
Mary”
“Royal Flush”: “Apples, Peaches, Bananas, and Pears” replaces “This Just Doesn’t
Seem to Be My Die” and “Good Clean Fun” replaces “Take a Giant Step”
“Monkee vs. Machine”: “Listen to the Band” replaces
“Saturday’s Child”
“Monkees on the Line”: “Little Girl” replaces “Look Out
(Here Comes Tomorrow)”
“Mijacogeo”: “I Never Thought It Peculiar” replaces “Zor
& Zam”
“Success Story”: “French Song” replaces “I Wanna Be Free”
“Don’t Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth”: “I Never Thought It
Peculiar” replaces “All the Kings Horses”
“The Wild Monkees”: “Looking for the Good Times” replaces
“Star Collector”
“One Man Shy”: “If I Knew” replaces “I’m a Believer”
“The Monkees Get Out More Dirt”: “Steam Engine” replaces
“The Girl I Knew Somewhere”
“The Devil and Peter Tork”: “I Never Thought It Peculiar”
replaces “Salesman”
“The Chaperone”: “Midnight Train” replaces “This Just
Doesn’t Seem to Be My Day”
“I’ve Got a Little Song Here”: “Steam Engine” replaces “Mary
Mary”
“Monkees in the Ring”: “Looking for the Good Times” replaces
either “Laugh” or “I’ll Be Back on My Feet”
“Dance, Monkee, Dance”: “If You Have the Time” replaces “I’ll
Be Back on My Feet” or “I’m a Believer”
“Monkees a la Mode”: “Oh My My” replaces “Laugh”
“Hitting the High Seas”: “Oh My My” replaces “Daydream
Believer”
“Monkees in Manhattan”: “Acapulco Sun” replaces “Look Out
(Here Comes Tomorrow)”
“Your Friendly Neighborhood Kidnappers”: “Do You Feel It Too”
replaces either “Let’s Dance On”, “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone”, or “Last
Train to Clarksville”
“Monkees on Tour”: “Steam Engine” replaces “The Girl I Knew
Somewhere”
“Monkees Marooned”: “Do You Feel It Too” replaces either “What
Am I Doing Hangin’ ‘Round” or “Daydream Believer”
“The Spy Who Came in from the Cool”: “All Alone in the Dark”
replaces either “The Kind of Girl I Could Love”, “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone”,
“All the Kings Horses”, or “Saturday’s Child”
“The Prince and the Pauper”: “99 Pounds” replaces “Mary Mary”
“The Monstrous Monkee Mash”: “By Bye, Baby, Bye Bye”
replaces “Goin’ Down”
"Monkees in Paris": "Tell Me Love" replaces (presumably) "Don't Call on Me"
