Rhino Records has apparently seen the success of MCA's 20th Century Masters series and decided to get into the act. How else do you explain taking their existing excellent single-disc compilation (1995's 20-track Greatest Hits) and reducing it to twelve tracks and then having the chutzpah to call it "essential"? First of all, it's missing three of their hits ("The Girl I Knew Somewhere," "Tapioca Tundra" and "D.W. Washburn"). Then they include a song by Peter Tork ("For Pete's Sake") and ignore the band's best songwriter, Michael Nesmith ("Papa Gene's Blues," "You Told Me," "You May Just Be the One," "Circle Sky," etc.). [Also, amazon.com incorrectly lists "Randy Scouse Git" as one of the twelve tracks; it is the Goffin/King "Porpoise Song" from the movie Head, instead.] This condensed version of Greatest Hits may save you a few bucks, but with a playing time under 33 minutes it also gives you a myopic view of one of the most successful bands of the mid-Sixties.

The Monkees are arguably the second greatest band from the sixties, behind the Beatles of course. This CD has a wonderful selection of good Monkees songs. I am only twelve, but I love old music. Elvis, Bobby Darin, the Beatles, the Monkees, Jackson 5, James Brown, the Beach Boys, Little Richard, I love 'em all. This is a great Monkees CD so get it.

Essentials? While Rhino's 20-track "Greatest Hits" is available at about the same price, along with a myriad of other recommended compilations, this is hardly essential. Or necessary. Five stars for material, zero stars for raison d'etre.

I don't think this is a really "bad" compilation, but it's not such a great one, either. It only has 12 tracks, and a few of the songs that were hits for the group have been left off. Also, "Pleasant Valley Sunday" is the album version, which differs considerably from the single version. More strangely, the CD is completely devoid of any songs composed or sung by Mike Nesmith, who was arguably the most musically talented member of the group. Of the members, he wrote the most songs by far, and was also the BEST writer; and if he didn't sing as often as Micky Dolenz or Davy Jones, he still sang MUCH more often (and better) than Peter Tork. (Apologies to Tork.) He wrote and/or sang lead on songs such as "Mary, Mary," "Papa Gene's Blues," "The Girl I Knew Somewhere," "Listen To The Band," "Tapioca Tundra," "What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round," "Good Clean Fun," and quite a number of others, and many of them would have been worthy of inclusion here. (And I'm not even counting tracks that originally didn't get released!) In fact, two of Nesmith's songs, "The Girl I Knew Somewhere" and "Tapioca Tundra," were Top 40 hits. Considering the vastness and quality of Nesmith's contributions to the group, it's almost like the compiler(s) of this CD had something against Mike when they put it together! (Nesmith DOES play on a few tracks and sings harmony behind Micky Dolenz on "Pleasant Valley Sunday.") Another rather bizarre thing about the CD is that Peter Tork's song "For Pete's Sake," which is probably his most-known Monkees composition, is included, but "Randy Scouse Git," which is undoubtedly Micky Dolenz' most-known Monkees composition, is not. For some reason, Amazon lists that song as among the 12 tracks, but it's actually "Porpoise Song" that is included. (Poor Davy Jones --- as popular as he was [is], he never wrote anything for the group that has come to be regarded as a "classic," at least not as far as I know.) Maybe they put "For Pete's Sake" on here because it was used (although in heavily edited form) as the closing theme of the TV show (later in the series). Both "For Pete's Sake" and "Randy Scouse Git" were released on Headquarters, which was the Monkees' only true "group" album (until Justus in '96, that is). Another Headquarters track that is undeservedly absent from this CD is "Shades Of Gray." How ANY true Monkees fan can NOT consider this song an "essential" is beyond me. As a compilation of "essential" tracks, this CD just doesn't cut it; 12 tracks simply aren't enough to do the Monkees justice. This CD might be a good one to get if you're new to the Monkees' music and just want a small sample of it, but otherwise, there are bigger and better single-disc Monkees comps out there. One of them is Rhino's 1995 Greatest Hits comp, which can be found "new" for cheap. Another one is Arista's Then & Now...The Best Of The Monkees. That one was put out way back in '86, and it uses some album versions in place of single versions, but it's STILL a VERY worthy purchase, at least if you get it "used" for cheap.

Twelve songs on this greatest hits compilation. It seems as if there are other compilations with more songs.

Nonetheless, there are some good tunes here. Day Dream Believer is my favorite on here but I appreciate several others(I'm Not Your Stepping Stone, I'm A Believer, Last Train To Clarksville). Somehow knowing that the Monkees were a TV band and that the music was recorded by session musicians make me not think too highly of these guys as compared to say the Beatles, Stones, or Who. Nonetheless, some of these songs are quite memorable.