Changes (The Monkees album)

Changes
Studio album by The Monkees
Released	June 1970
Recorded	Late 1969/Early 1970
Genre	Rock
Label	Colgems Records (USA) RCA Records (Japan) Rhino Records (1986 vinyl reissue, 1995 CD reissue)
Producer	Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Tommy Boyce, Bobby Hart, Bill Chadwick, Jeff Barry
The Monkees chronology
The Monkees Present (1969) Changes (1970) Barrel Full of Monkees (1971)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

Changes is the ninth studio album by The Monkees. The album was issued after Michael Nesmith's exit from the band, leaving only Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones to fulfill the recording contract they signed in the mid-1960s. Changes was their last new album for Colgems Records.

History

The album's title had originally been considered for the Monkees' movie (released in 1968), and a song with that title (cowritten by Jones with Steve Pitts) had been recorded. The movie was retitled Head, however, and the song was shelved, remaining unreleased until the 1990s.

Changes reunited Jones and Dolenz with producer Jeff Barry, who now had his own successful record label, Steed Records. "99 Pounds" was a leftover from a 1967 session, "Midnight Train" (recorded during sessions for The Monkees Present) was featured in CBS-TV reruns of the television show (most notably in "The Chaperone"), and "Acapulco Sun" was released as a single in Mexico, becoming a minor hit there.

"Oh My My" became the first single from the album and made the Top 100 in the Billboard charts; written by Jeff Barry and Andy Kim, it is unrelated to the later 1973 Ringo Starr single of the same name. Two tracks recorded during the sessions — "Ride Baby Ride," a complete mystery with no credits nor tapes available for review and "Which Way (Do You Want It)," a song which was replaced by "Midnight Train" — were left off the LP and are now lost outtakes. Another track, "Time and Time Again", was dropped in favor of "I Never Thought It Peculiar" but later surfaced as a bonus track on the CD release. As with the earliest Monkees recordings, Jones and Dolenz only provided their vocals, while the backing tracks were provided by session musicians.

"Steam Engine" was recorded in 1969 for "Changes", and was written and produced by Chip Douglas with Dolenz on vocals. This song became only accessible through the Monkees TV series episode "Monkees on Tour" as it was not released due to a disagreement between Screen Gems and Douglas over session costs. In 1979, it did see the light of day on the album, Monkeemania - 40 Timeless Hits and later in the USA on the Rhino picture disc, Monkee Business in 1982.

The album appeared in June 1970 and initially failed to make the charts. Consequently, its initial pressing was limited (COS-119) and has become one of the more valuable Monkees albums. Jones announced shortly after its release that he was resuming his solo career (amidst an industrial joke that either he or Dolenz would leave The Monkees and the remaining member would record the next album as "The Monkee"), but he and Dolenz would release one more single together before reuniting in 1976, with Monkees producers Boyce and Hart.

In the wake of the success of the Monkees' television show being rebroadcast on Saturday mornings by CBS (in which all but two tracks from Changes were featured in the reruns), the duo recorded "Do It In The Name Of Love" and "Lady Jane", in September 1970. Instead of appearing under the Monkees name on Colgems Records, however, the single was released on Bell Records, the successor label to Colgems, credited to "Mickey Dolenz (sic) and Davy Jones". This was due to the prohibitive costs of licensing the Monkees name in the US; however, in several other countries, the record was issued as the Monkees.

Changes was reissued in December 1986 by Rhino Records (RNLP-70148), as were all of the original Monkees albums that year, and made a belated entry into the Billboard album charts, reaching #152.

Jones has stated that Changes is his least favorite Monkees effort, going so far as to comment in the CD version's liner notes: "That was Jeff Barry and Andy Kim doing an Andy Kim album," adding that he had terrible memories of the recording sessions. Dolenz, while not lavishing praise on Changes, said that he was pleased to be invited to record new material. "I was quite happy to do it as long as somebody wanted to record me. It was simple as that." Dolenz added "by that time, it was pretty obvious that The Monkees were over. Davy and I were still getting along, but we were mainly fulfilling a contractual obligation to a record company — that's what Changes is all about about".^[2]

Original album track listing

Side 1

1. "Oh My My" (Jeff Barry, Andy Kim)
2. "Ticket on a Ferry Ride" (Jeff Barry, Bobby Bloom)
3. "You're So Good to Me" (Jeff Barry, Bobby Bloom)
4. "It's Got to Be Love" (Neil Goldberg)
5. "Acapulco Sun" (Ned Albright, Steven Soles)
6. "99 Pounds" (Jeff Barry)

Side 2

1. "Tell Me Love" (Jeff Barry)
2. "Do You Feel It Too?" (Jeff Barry, Andy Kim)
3. "I Love You Better" (Jeff Barry, Andy Kim)
4. "All Alone in the Dark" (Ned Albright, Steven Soles)
5. "Midnight Train" (Micky Dolenz)
6. "I Never Thought It Peculiar" (Tommy Boyce, Bobby Hart)

Note: All tracks except "You're So Good To Me" and "It's Got To Be Love" were featured on the CBS reruns of The Monkees from 1970–1972

CD bonus tracks

1. "Time and Time Again" (Davy Jones, Bill Chadwick)
2. "Do It In The Name of Love" (Bobby Bloom, Neil Goldberg)
3. "Lady Jane" (Bobby Bloom, Neil Goldberg)

Besides being the opening track and lead-off single from the album, "Oh My My" was also accompanied by a rare promo film directed by Micky Dolenz, showing Micky and Davy Jones riding their motorcycles and horses.

References

1. ^ http://www.allmusic.com/album/r13305
2. ^ Liner notes for 1995 Rhino CD release of Changes