Headquarters (The Monkees album)
Headquarters is the third album issued by the Monkees and the first with substantial songwriting and instrumental performances by members of the group itself, rather than by session musicians and professional songwriters. After a struggle for creative autonomy with their record label, the group had been allowed, to a degree, to record by themselves. "Headquarters" reached No. 1 on the "Billboard" 200 chart and was certified double platinum in the United States with sales of more than two million copies within the first two months of release. It peaked at No. 2 on the UK charts . It is included in the 2006 book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". Early history and concept. While the original concept of their third album was to follow the same format and production of the first two albums, after the release of "More of the Monkees", the group was becoming increasingly frustrated by the limited creative input they were allowed by Don Kirshner, and continued to fight for more creative control and independence from him. Kirshner had already begun supervising recording sessions with studio musicians for their third album, with Davy Jones recording vocal tracks for some of  the songs, while the group recorded two songs featuring them both singing "and" playing ("All of Your Toys" and "The Girl I Knew Somewhere"), for their next single. The hope was to pacify the group, particularly Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork, by gaining some of the input they were asking for, even though the track would feature as the B-side, with the A-side featuring one of the aforementioned Jones-vocal tracks. Tensions came to a head when Kirshner released the third single (in Canada), with Jones' tracks on "both" sides ("A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You  and an early version of She Hangs Out"), completely ignoring the group's request, and without the express approval of record executives. This was the last straw, leading to Kirshner's dismissal from the Monkees project and the group finally being given full creative control of their next album. The single was withdrawn from Canada and pulled from scheduled release in the US. Since "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" was already announced as the next single, it was retained as the A-side and "The Girl I Knew Somewhere" as the B-side (a publishing error prevented  All of Your Toys from being used), replacing "She Hangs Out". The remaining Kirshner-supervised tracks that had already been finished were discarded. Release. The album was released on May 22, 1967, and charted at No. 1 in the U.S., only to be replaced the following week by the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"; it then began a run of 11 consecutive weeks at the No. 2 position as "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "Headquarters" became the two top-selling records during the legendary "Summer of Love" period. The album was issued on the  compact disc format for the first time by Arista Records in 1989, remixed from the multi-tracks, then later from the original stereo master tape in 1995, with several bonus tracks on Rhino Entertainment. In 2000, Rhino, through its Rhino Handmade division, issued "The Headquarters Sessions", a three-disc box set of outtakes from the session as well as the album's original monophonic mix presented in an alternate running order that had been rejected before the album's official release. In 2007, Rhino issued a two-disc deluxe edition of the album. The CD set was housed in a  digipak with a slipcase and featured original album artwork (including replicas of the original Colgems vinyl labels on each disc), as well as a booklet of essays and session information by Monkees historian Andrew Sandoval. The discs contained both the stereo and mono mixes of the album, remastered, as well as alternate mixes and outtakes. Album cover. The original rear album cover features a collage of photos including one of the band with producer Chip Douglas and engineer Dick Bogert. However, the photo was mislabeled: it identifies engineer Hank Cicalo as sitting next to Chip Douglas. This is known as  the "producers cover". Colgems/RCA corrected the error by substituting a different photo rather than revising the caption. Peter, Micky and Mike were sporting light beards while Davy's shoulder-length hair had been cut off; this has come to be known as the "beard cover". This is the corrected version because it was standard practice for RCA to add an "RE" to the catalog number when any one side of a record sleeve had a revision. The "beard cover" has a catalog number of COS/COM-103 RE. Track listing. 1995 Rhino CD reissue. "Tracks 1-14: Original album in  stereo" 2007 Rhino deluxe CD reissue. Disc one "Tracks 1-14: Original Album in Stereo" Disc two "Tracks 1-14: Original Album in Mono" Aborted track listing. The album's preliminary track lineup was compiled shortly after the sessions had ended and would have included the following songs: Side 1 Side 2 "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" and "The Girl I Knew Somewhere" were ultimately substituted with "No Time" and "I Can't Get Her Off My Mind". Personnel. The Monkees Additional musicians and production staff During the early months of 1967, the four Monkees sequestered themselves  in the RCA Victor Music Center of the World Studios, on Sunset Boulevard near Vine Street in Hollywood. Some of the songs were written by the four group members, or evolved via their 'jam' sessions. Other songs were written by songwriters Boyce and Hart. Michael Nesmith recruited fellow folk musician Chip Douglas, a member of the Modern Folk Quartet and the Turtles, to produce the album. Douglas, credited under his birth name, Douglas Farthing Hatlelid, also contributed bass guitar and a song, "Forget That Girl". "You Told Me" "I'll Spend My Life with You" "Forget That Girl" "Band 6  You Just May Be the One" "Shades of Gray" "I Can't Get Her Off My Mind" "For Pete's Sake" "Mr. Webster" "Sunny Girlfriend" "Zilch" "No Time" "Early Morning Blues and Greens" "Randy Scouse Git" Several instrumental jams (available on "The Headquarters Sessions") were taped by Chip Douglas which The Monkees apparently intended for inclusion on the album. The group (with bassist John London) jammed an instrumental cover of the song "Memphis Tennessee" in which Peter's guitar grooving (and some of London's bass work and Davy's tambourine) overshoots the ending; after Micky good-naturedly curses out  Peter ("Aw, Peter! You had to screw it up!") and bashes his drums for effect, he decides, "We'll cut him off, just cut off the track (for the ending)," to which Mike replies, "No, don't cut off the track, it was groovy until [the ending]." Following this jam the group broke into a ferocious three-minute improvisation (dubbed "Twelve-String Improvisation" on "The Headquarters Sessions") led by Mike's take-off of the guitar riff from the Beatles' "Day Tripper" and quickly joined by Peter's riffing, Micky's drums, London's bass and Davy's tambourine. Following  the jam Micky is heard laughing and says, "Whoa! I gotta hear this!" and Peter asks Douglas, "Can we hear that back?" while a surprised Mike says, "Oh, they didn't tape that, did they?" Another instrumental track intended for the album was a rock number, "Masking Tape" (credited to Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil but authorship has also been listed as unknown) which the group recorded with bassist Jerry Yester. One take was recorded: before the take Micky and Chip Douglas run through one of the song's verses. At the end of the performance Micky exclaims, "Whoa ! That was it!" but producer Douglas protests, "No, that wasn't it, it slowed down in the middle, but it's getting close." For some reason the song was never finished. Peter, Mike, Micky and his sister Coco recorded demos early in the sessions. Peter's demo of "Seeger's Theme" was instrumental, while Mike's and the Dolenzes' demos ("Nine Times Blue" and the Buffy Saint Marie composition "Until It's Time for You to Go" by Mike (who had first released it as a single in 1965); "She'll Be There" and "Midnight Train" by Micky and Coco ) featured full vocals over acoustic guitar. Mike and the Dolenzes' demos took place in one session, as before Mike's demo of "Until It's Time" Chip Douglas is heard teasing that Mike is demoing under his old pseudonym 'Michael Blessing' to the laughter of Micky and Coco. Bonus tracks session information. "All of Your Toys" (Early Mono Mix) "The Girl I Knew Somewhere" (Second Recorded Version + Mono Mix) "Peter Gunn's Gun" (Jam Session) "Jericho" (Studio Dialogue + Mono) "Nine Times Blue" (Demo Version + Mono) "She'll Be There" (Acoustic Duet + Mono) "Midnight Train" (Demo Version  + Mono) "Pillow Time" (Studio Dialogue + Mono) 2007 deluxe CD reissue bonus tracks session information. "all tracks produced by Chip Douglas unless otherwise specified." "A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You" (Stereo Remix) "She Hangs Out" (Single Version + Stereo Remix) "Love to Love" (Alternate Stereo Remix) "You Can't Tie a Mustang Down" (Stereo Remix) "If I Learned to Play the Violin" (Stereo Remix) "99 Pounds" (Stereo Remix) "The Girl I Knew Somewhere" (Single Version + Stereo Remix) "Tema Dei Monkees" (Stereo Remix) References. Bibliography