Monkees, The Vinyl Records
"Hey hey, we're the Monkees/You know we love to please/A manufactured image/With no philosophies." In 1968, the Monkees addressed their own reputation in the song "Ditty Diego (War Chant)," which summed up the bad rap they'd received in the music press since they first emerged in the summer of 1966. The Monkees were talented singers, musicians, and songwriters who made a handful of the finest pop singles of their day (as well as a few first-rate albums) and delivered exciting, entertaining live shows. But they did so at a time when rock music was becoming more self-conscious and "serious," and the hipper echelons of the music press often lambasted the Monkees, largely because they didn't form organically but through the casting process for a television series.