1969 The Monkees ‎– Instant Replay

Instant Replay is the seventh studio album by The Monkees. Issued six months after the cancellation of the group’s NBC television series, it is also the first album released after Peter Tork left the group and the only album of the original nine studio albums that does not include any songs featured in the TV show from the original NBC run nor the CBS/ABC reruns.

Although the Monkees had recorded dozens of tracks between the time of their last studio album, spring 1968’s The Birds, The Bees & the Monkees (a soundtrack LP from their film Head had been released between the two studio LPs), several of the songs on Instant Replay actually dated from sessions up to two and a half years earlier.

The band’s new music supervisor, Brendan Cahill, believed that releasing previously unused tracks recorded in 1966—prior to the group’s seizing control of their own recording process—was the way for the group to get back to the top. The album’s lead single, “Tear Drop City,” was one of the songs taken from the vault. The song was sped up around 9 percent from the original recording, changing the song’s key from G to A-flat. The single, notably similar to the group’s first hit “Last Train to Clarksville”, was identified by Michael Nesmith as their intended first single in 1966. The track was not a major hit, only managing to reach No. 56 on the U.S. charts, while reaching No. 34 in Australia. Despite the single’s poor chart performance, the album charted on the Billboard Top 40 Albums chart at 32.

Micky Dolenz’s “Just a Game” had originally been written during the sessions of the Headquarters album, while Nesmith’s “Don’t Wait for Me” was the first released product of his 1968 sessions with Nashville studio musicians. Davy Jones’ “You and I,” with its lyrics bemoaning the fickle pace of teen stardom, featured guitar work from Neil Young.