The Monkees, The Beach Boys, and The Byrds worked with the same group of musicians. Despite this, The Monkees’ Micky Dolenz felt only his group took heat for it. Notably, the musicians in question worked on one of The Beach Boys’ most famous albums.
The Monkees’ Mike Nesmith revealed to the press that the Prefab Four didn’t record their own music
Bobby Hart co-wrote many of The Monkees’ songs. In his 2015 book Psychedelic Bubble Gum: Boyce & Hart, The Monkees, and Turning Mayhem Into Miracles, Hart discussed an incident that changed the trajectory of the Prefab Four’s career.
“During that first Monkees’ tour, an increasingly confrontational Michael Nesmith stoked the media fire in a Saturday Evening Post interview: ‘Tell the world we’re synthetic because, damn it, we are,’” Hart quoted. “‘Tell them The Monkees are wholly man-made overnight, and that millions of dollars have been poured into this thing. Tell the world we don’t record our own music.’” Notably, studio musicians worked on The Monkees’ 1960s output.
The Monkees’ Micky Dolenz said The Byrds and The Beach Boys also worked with studio musicians
During a 2016 interview with Magnet, a journalist told Dolenz that The Monkees received lots of criticism because they didn’t play instruments on their records even though many bands did the same thing.
“You hit the nail on the head: We took the s*** for it, pardon my French,” he said. “Something that was a common practice for The Byrds and The Beach Boys. It’s ironic. Everybody did it because the recording techniques back then were so different and so expensive.”
Subsequently, Dolenz discussed The Wrecking Crew, a famous group of studio musicians who worked on many 1960s hits by The Monkees and others. “[The Byrds’] Roger McGuinn used to say that they used The Wrecking Crew because they’d nail a song in three takes,” he said. “When The Byrds went in, it took 73 takes. But we took the s*** for it, which is weird because we didn’t have a choice. We were the cast of this TV show.”
How The Wrecking Crew impacted The Beach Boys ad The Byrds
The album Pet Sounds is often considered The Beach Boys’ masterpiece and one of the greatest albums in the history of rock ‘n’ roll music. According to the 2017 book Wouldn’t It Be Nice: Brian Wilson and the Making of The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, The Wrecking Crew can be heard throughout that album.
The Wrecking Crew also worked with The Beach Boys on other occasions, including the album Friends. Wilson said Pet Sounds is The Beach Boys’ best album, but Friends is his favorite.
In his 2020 book Time Between: My Life as a Byrd, Burrito Brother, and Beyond, The Byrds’ Chris Hillman also discussed The Wrecking Crew. He said they played on The Byrds’ first hit: their cover of Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man.” Hillman took no issue with his absence on the song. He enjoyed the opportunity to watch The Wrecking Crews’ Larry Knetchel play on the song. He felt Knetchel was a master musician.
The Wrecking Crew worked on a lot of classic rock songs even if The Monkees were criticized for working with them.
