Candy Store Prophets

The Candy Store Prophets were a 1960s rock band, headed by singer-songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. Their lineup included Boyce and Gerry McGee on guitar, Hart on keyboards, Larry Taylor on bass guitar and Billy Lewis on drums.

After Boyce and Hart wrote and recorded the songs for the pilot episode of "The Monkees", they were asked by the show's producers, Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, to name five 'professional' record producers who could create the music for the series, once it went into production. Their answer "Boyce and Hart, Hart and Boyce, Tommy and Bobby, Bobby and Tommy, TB & BH" was laughed off, and they were asked a second time. They named some current hit producers: "Snuff Garrett, Mickie Most, Gerry Goffin and Carole King — and don't ever speak to me again!"

While Most passed on Rafelson and Schneider's offer, and tryouts with Garrett, Goffin and King proved disastrous (with King reportedly walking out of the studio in tears), Boyce and Hart contacted Screen Gems music supervisor Don Kirshner, who was put in charge of delivering the songs for the show, and asked to audition for him. Kirshner accepted, and was treated to a performance by the Candy Store Prophets, who delivered a nonstop set of all the songs Boyce and Hart had written to date for the Monkees. Kirshner was impressed, and officially named the pair as producers.

The Candy Store Prophets recorded the bulk of the backing tracks for the first Monkees album, and for the show's first season, with help from guitarists Louie Shelton and Wayne Erwin. When the Monkees began to perform publicly late in 1966, the Prophets toured with them as their opening act.