On December 25th, 1967, NBC-TV aired a very special episode of The Monkees. Christmas landed on a Monday night that year, which was the regular night for “The Monkees” weekly broadcasts, and instead of airing a rerun or animated holiday special, the network presented a new episode of the massively popular series aptly titled “The Christmas Show.” The Monkees were joined by special guest star Butch Patrick, best remembered in the role of Eddie Munster on “The Munsters,” as a mean-spirited rich tween named Melvin Vandersnot. In the episode, Daavy Jones, Mike Nesmith, Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork are hired as babysitters by the boy’s Aunt as she heads out on a ski vacation, and after being continuously insulted by the boy despite their attempts to befriend him, they teach Melvin how to be a kid again while teaching him the wonders of the holiday season via their mirth, kindness and a bit of Christmas magic. Filled with the madcap zany antics which made The Monkees a sensation, the episode also had a fair bit of pathos and heart, making it one of the most remembered episodes of the series that is unanimously loved by Monkees fans.
But what made the episode extra special was when The Monkees came together at the closing of the show to sing. Instead of lip synching one of the hits from their albums, which was the way they did the musical bits each week, for this episode The Monkees joined their voices together to perform a special acapella version of the Spanish villancico “Riu Chiu,” which would be the first and only time on the television show’s entire run that the four Monkees actually sang live. Originating from around 1550, the piece is from the classical choral canon, and not a song that would be immediately recognized as a holiday song, nor by the general American public. Sung entirely in Spanish and featuring verses that references the birth of Christ and the angels appearing to the shepherds, it was an odd choice for a pop band like The Monkees to perform.
The idea for the performance was brought to the table by The Monkees’ primary producer Chip Douglas, who himself had recorded the song in 1964 as a member of the folk group The Modern Folk Quartet. Sitting The Monkees down and teaching them the song, Micky Dolenz stepped up to the challenge to sing the body completely in Spanish verse, with Mike Nesmith, Peter Tork and Davy Jones joining in for the chorus complete with a “round” type section in which the listener could distinctly identify each individual voice. Apparently done in a single take, The Monkees beautifully performed the song proving to an often-cynical public that they indeed had some serious musical chops. Although the lyrics were most likely undecipherable to the majority of The Monkees’ audience, the group created a magical moment filled with holiday spirit and a hint of religious mysticism. The performance would go on to be one of the most beloved Monkee moments, and the song would become a favorite of fans of the “Pre-fab Four.”
Although they haven’t managed to enter the popular cannon of Christmas recordings heard in the general soundscape each holiday season, The Monkees actually have a long history in the production of Christmas music. Between 1967 and 2018 members of The Monkees have been active in spreading holiday cheer in song, although you rarely hear their holiday music in the wild. But to Monkees fans, and fans of pop music in general, the holiday music of The Monkees are timeless wonders filled with their signature playfulness and warmth.
The Monkees were actually featured on the mmusic compilation which converted me to becoming a fan and advocate for Christmas music. As a child, like most kids who loved Christmas, one of my favorite parts was the holiday songs that we only sang once a year. But, as I grew into a teenager and adopted the cynical attitude that all discontented youth take on in an attempt to seem “edgy,” like a lot of people I believed that Christmas music was all shit. This is a major misconception that most people have about Christmas music to this day, and I don’t think it’s fair. I actually think that the problem isn’t the quality of the songs, although, to be fair, many performers are guilty of “phoning in” Christmas albums. I think the problem lies within the constant repetition of the same core holiday recordings played over and over again…and again….and again….by lazy musical programmers. Listening to the same recording hundreds of times over a single holiday is enough to make anybody hate even the best song, which is why well produced and performed singles such as Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” and Wham’s “Last Christmas” gets so much hate every holiday season. But there is a secret to surviving the holiday soundscape. Instead of laying down and allowing yourself to be steamrolled by the barrage of Christmas sludge being thrust at you, as a music fan you can mine through the filth and find those rare holiday musical gems. There are literally hundreds of interesting Christmas recordings out there and searching for those perfect holiday songs can be a lot of fun for an audiophile and music collector.
I learnt this one season when working at the local university radio station (97.2 CFFF-FM Trent Radio) and the holiday “samplers” were brought out for airplay. These CDs were full of holiday songs I had never heard before performed by name artists which I love! This opened my ears to the joy of holiday music, and I began cultivating a Christmas music collection which continues today. Well, my favorite of all of these holiday CDs from the radio station was a 1992 compilation of deep cuts titled “A TV Family Christmas.” While I have all but abandoned CDs now, this release is one of the few which I sought out for my music collection, and it’s become an invaluable part of my holiday experience. A delightful holiday collection featuring songs by stars of television shows, including “the casts of “Bonanza,” “Here Comes the Brides,” “The Brady Bunch,” “The Partridge Family” and “Bringing Up Daddy,” one of the highlights on the CD was a song by The Monkees called “Christmas Is My Time of Year.”
The origins of “Christmas is My Time of Year” goes back to 1968. Written by The Turtles’ lead singer Howard Kaylan (aka Eddie of “Flo and Eddie” fame) the song was released as a single on White Whale Records credited to “The Christmas Spirit,” and sung by a chorus made up of Linda Ronstadt, Bessie Griffin and members of The Turtles, The Byrds and The Modern Folk Quartet. Producing the track was Chip Douglas, who brought The Monkees “Riu Chiu” the year earlier. Although an interesting and ambitious single, it didn’t really hit with the public and quickly fell into obscurity.
Still fond of the song, Chip Douglas dusted it off and in 1976 brought it to pals Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones and suggested that they take a stab at it. Although the TV series had ended some eight years earlier, and The Monkees hadn’t released an album since 1970’s “Changes,” The Monkees were still very much a part of the cultural landscape. Having found a second life in syndication as a staple of Saturday morning television, in 1976 Micky and Davy were back on tour with songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, which saw the release of the album “Dolenz, Jones, Boyce and Hart.” With Chip Douglas spearheading the project, it was decided The Monkees would independently produce the Christmas single and make it available via mail to members of The Monkees Fan Club.
For The Monkees, Chip Douglas retooled “Christmas is My Kind of Year” into a far cleaner and more coherent composition and when it came time to record the single a special guest was brought onto the project! Making his first appearance with The Monkees since he parted ways with them in 1969 was Peter Tork! As for Mike Nesmith, after releasing some excellent solo albums in the early 70’s with his group The First National Band, he was already well into what would be a long dissociation with The Monkees.
But a glitch in The Monkees plans occurred when they discovered that they did not own the rights to the band name and could not legally use “The Monkees.” As a result, “Christmas is My Kind of Year” was released under the band name “We Three Monkees” and included a solo performance of “White Christmas” by Davy Jones on the B-side of the record. Undersold in extreme limited quantities, the original pressing of “Christmas is My Time of Year” is a rare record. While copies are available on Discogs for sale, they range in price from $130US to $300US! The disc would eventually get rereleased on vinyl, complete with a picture sleeve, in 1986 during The Monkees MTV renaissance where it was primarily sold at fan conventions and concert merch tables. However, despite its rarity, “Christmas is My Time of Year” managed to become popular with Monkees fans and was included on various compilations and collections.
But let’s not leave 1986 and MTV behind just yet. That year The Monkees had a massive resurgence in popularity when MTV began rerunning the series which quickly became one of the channel’s highest rated programs. Bringing the group back to a prominence that they hadn’t seen since the TV series ended, Micky, Davy and Peter began making regular appearances on MTV again, prompting a series of new tours and new recordings. That Christmas The Monkees were featured in an MTV produced video alongside the stars and VJs from the network, such as Martha Quinn, Alan Hunter and Julie Brown, who sang a medley of Christmas songs including “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” “Winter Wonderland,” “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,” “Jingle Bell Rock,” and “War is Over (Merry X-Mas).” Bright and full of fun, the video had a special ending when the creepy Santa Claus featured throughout the video revealed himself to actually be Mike Nesmith, who had, up until then, refused to take part in any of the MTV related spots. But despite its abundance of whimsy, the musical performances were below standard for The Monkees, and the backing track sounded like it had been imported from a cheaply produced Mike Curb instrumental track. While it got lots of play on MTV, the medley would never see any sort of release on any format. Only living as a video, the MTV Christmas medley remains to be a high-spirited oddity from The Monkees’ 1980’s period.
Chip Douglas would continue to be a musical spirit of Christmas who kept giving, and in 1991 he brought Davy Jones back into the studio to produce an entire collection of Christmas songs! Titled “It’s Christmas Time Again,” the project was independently produced during the dark era when vinyl was believed to be a thing of the past and CDs were deemed to be the “new technology.” Although it got little attention upon it’s release, the Davy Jones Christmas album would prove to be a valuable treasure in the years that followed. Primarily made up of standards, such as “Silent Night,” “Silver Bells,” and “Winter Wonderland,” the album also had an original song called “When I Look Back at Christmas.” Another release that initially found sales at fan conventions and concerts, the album would be rereleased multiple times under different titles, such as “Christmas Jones” in 2005 and “It’s Christmas Time Once More” in 2020. The Davy Jones solo Christmas project was finally released for the first time on vinyl in 2023, but again in limited quantities making it another extremely rare Monkees oddity. Currently on Discos only one copy exists for sale, which is selling for £100!
But the most obvious entry in The Monkees Christmas canon would come in 2018 with the release of “Christmas Party.” The first full album of holiday songs credited to The Monkees, “Christmas Party” came as the result of the highly successful 2016 album “Good Times,” which not only propelled Monkee fandom into the 21st century stronger than ever, but left music fans wanting more. Spearheaded by Fountain of Wayne co-founder Adam Schlesinger in the role of the album’s chief producer, “Christmas Party” primarily followed the same formula of “Good Times” by featuring an updated sound for the Monkees via new holiday songs written by professionals working in the alt-rock industry. Modern standards like “Merry Christmas Baby,” “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday” and “Wonderful Christmastime” were mixed in with by new contributions by Schlesinger, XTC’s Andy Partridge, Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo and Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey from REM.
But while Monkees albums of the past were a chance for the members to come together again in one combination or another, “Christmas Party” would be a much more isolated project with the individual members of the group separated from one another and working with their own producers. The hard truth was, with one of The Monkees having died, and the others all in their 70’s, eking out another album was honestly a “now or never” situation.
The majority of “Christmas Party” was held together by Micky Dolenz under the direction of Schlesinger,. Although he was 73 years old at the time of it’s release, Dolenz’s distinct vocals are instantly recognizable, and he sounds nearly the same as he did in 1966, giving the project that authentic Monkees vibe. The single made available to radio stations the year of it’s release was the cheekily suggestive “Unwrap You at Christmas,” but the gem on the album is clearly Schlesinger’s original composition “House of Broken Gingerbread.” A cynical bop about holiday family dysfunction delivered to perfection by Dolenz, “House of Broken Gingerbread” would be hailed a modern classic by music critics.
Mikr Nesmith fans got a Christmas gift with the first holiday recordings ever released by The Monkees’ “dark horse.” Despite his cameo in the 1986 MTV video, he was not a featured vocalist, thus Nesmith had never really participated in any holiday recordings before. For “Christmas Party” Nesmith made his contributions a family affair, producing a pair of songs aided by his sons Christian and Johnathan. Although the distinct Texan twang seemed lost from his vocals, Nesmith still provided a warm take on the holiday favorite “The Christmas Song,” and reintroduced a deep cut with a rendition of Claude Thornhill’s 1941 big band classic “Snowfall,” reimagined as an old time western ballad. Mike Nesmith has always been my favorite Monkee, so I can testify that finally having him on some Christmas recordings was a true holiday treat!
As for Davy Jones, it was perennial gift giver Chip Douglas who resurrected the beloved Monkee as if he was a ghost from Christmas past. The sudden death of Davy Jones in 2012 was still a fresh wound on the hearts of fans, and a Monkees project without him still felt completely inconceivable. But Douglas delivered Davy Jones to “Christmas Party” by providing two tracks from his Christmas solo album for rerelease. The warmth of Davy Jones comes through in “Silver Bells” and his whimsical humor can be found in “Mele Kalikimake.” But even more potent is the sound of Davy’s joyful voice at the opening moments of the album’s title track, “Christmas Party.” Sampled from the original Monkees Christmas episode from 1967, the sound bite was from the episode’s spirited finale when The Monkees invites the entire production team to join the guys on-camera and Davy introduces each of them by name. A joyful moment from the series, Jones’ voice brings a very special warmth to the album that only he could provide.
But the most haunting moment of “Christmas Party” would prove to come from Peter Tork, who self produced a special rendition of “Angels We Have Heard on High.” Highly underproduced. at first listen it might seem that Tork was “phoning it in.” However, in reality, Tork’s track is the biggest Christmas miracle on the project. Extremely ill during the production of” Christmas Party”, Tork was dying of cancer, and it was believed that he would not be able to participate at all. However, with the help of pal James Lee Stanley, Tork painfully plunked the hymn out on his banjo, the instrument most associated with him, and recorded a heavily automated vocal track. Tork surprised producers by getting the bare bones track in and, despite its rawness, it was decided to just leave the track the way it arrived knowing this was going to be Peter Tork’s final farewell to Monkees fans.
“Christmas Party” was released with great anticipation in October 2018 but got mixed reviews. It was impossible to hide the disjointed feeling to the final product, which never seemed to congeal just right. But what disappointed Monkees fans the most was that there was one Christmas song that they wanted which was shamelessly missing from the album! Although it’d been 52 years since The Monkees Christmas broadcast of 1967, fans were still waiting for an official release of “Riu Chiu!” Well, the outcry by disappointed fans via social media didn’t go unnoticed, prompting Chip Douglas to remix the original recording which was added to vinyl copies sold exclusively at Target department stores in the US. For this special release he also included a rerelease of “Christmas is My Time of Year.” But while those versions were difficult to find outside of the US, and with the demand for the track continuing, “Riu Chiu” was finally added as a permanent track on all formats of “Christmas Party” produced from 2019 onwards, finally giving Monkees fans the Christmas song they were waiting for.
“Christmas Party” isn’t the strongest Monkees album, and it’s not even the best Christmas album ever recorded. However, it would prove to be the end of an era as The Monkees’ final studio album. In the years since it’s release, nearly all of the primary players involved in the record are no longer living. Months after the release of “Christmas Party,” Peter Tork finally lost his battle with cancer and passed away in February 2019. While Mike Nesmith and Micky Dolenz would carry on and do a series of concerts together, which led to a 2020 live album, “The Mike and Micky Show,” Mike Nesmith died unexpectedly only days after the final date of the tour in December 2021. Even Adam Schlesinger, who spearheaded all of The Monkees’ projects in the 21st century, passed away in 2020 of COVID-19 complications. Today the only key members of the “Christmas Party” contributors are Chip Douglas and, of course, Micky Dolenz who continues to keep The Monkees legacy alive by still touring and giving concerts at 80 years old. The fact that “Christmas Party” even exists is like a holiday miracle in itself, making it a true Christmas gift to Monkees fans everywhere.
