Rhino Factoids: The Monkees Meet Johnny Carson

For a band best known as a quartet in their heyday, the Monkees have nonetheless spent a fair amount of time as a trio over the course of their career, including their current incarnation, but the lineup of Micky Dolenz, Mike Nesmith, and Peter Tork is one borne at least partially out of tragedy, due to the death of Davy Jones in February 2012 permanently ending any chance of the full foursome reuniting again. The first time the band soldiered on as a trio, however, came about as a result of Tork’s departure, leaving Dolenz, Jones, and Nesmith to carry on without him.

While the trio’s two Tork-less albums – Instant Replay and The Monkees Present, both released in 1969 – may not have matched the commercial successes of their predecessors, the threesome’s promotional efforts for the greatest-hits collection released between the two studio albums resulted in a major pop culture accomplishment: 45 years ago this week, they made their one and only appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

Unfortunately, if you weren’t watching the show when it aired, you’ll never be able to see the Monkees’ appearance, as it’s one of those episodes that has been lost to the ages. If you search the ‘net, you’ll be able to hear how their performance sounded – they did two songs, "Daydream Believer” and “Goin’ Down,” backed by their touring band at the time, Sam & The Goodtimers – but that seems to be the extent of what’s been captured, sadly.

Perhaps it’s for the best, though: in his liner notes to the band’s Music Box collection, Andrew Sandoval briefly touches on the appearance, and it seems that the interview segment wasn’t exactly one for the ages.

“The Monkees’ panel segment featured Micky rambling on about holograms, polygraph testing, and the TV Guide. ‘The Johnny Carson show was pretty strange,’ admits Dolenz. ‘I was a big fan, and I got up there and I gave him a hologram. Also I had a copy of something that had been in the TV Guide about how to steal a talk show. I started reading that on the air.’”

Oh, well. But, hey, at least they met Johnny Carson, right?