It was released on October 10, 1966 by Colgems Records in the United States and RCA Victor in the rest of the world.

The Monkees has been certified quintuple platinum by the RIAA, with sales of over five million copies.

In late 1965, a pilot for the TV series The Monkees was approved by Screen Gems, the television branch of Columbia Pictures.

[6] Producers Bob Rafelson and Bob Schneider (also known as Raybert Productions), wishing to generate funding for experimental movies, came up with the idea of a sitcom about a garage band, inspired by Richard Lester's A Hard Day's Night and Rafelson's own experiences as a musician.

[6] After advertising an open casting call in Variety magazine and doing several applications with 437 aspirants, actor/musician Micky Dolenz, British singer/stage actor Davy Jones, recording artist/songwriter Michael Nesmith and Greenwich Village folk musician Peter Tork impressed Raybert enough to be chosen as the Monkees in September 1965.

[9] Before the pilot was filmed in November 1965, songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart were brought to the project by their songs publisher, Screen Gems head of music division Don Kirshner, and commissioned by Raybert to score the episode.

[11] In February 1966, Columbia ordered 32 episodes of the show after the second screening of the pilot was a success.

[12] Dubbed "the Man with the Golden Ear", Kirshner viewed potential in merging television and music, and initially favored Mickie Most, Snuff Garrett, and Carole King for producing the Monkees, but sessions with them did not work well, so Boyce and Hart were called back.

[14] The album was recorded in numerous separate sessions around Los Angeles from July 5–25, 1966.

Michael Nesmith produced two sessions scheduled around the work done by Boyce, Hart, and Keller.

Famously, the Monkees were not permitted by their management to function as a working band for this album.

Although the album cover credits the band as playing instruments (drums for Dolenz; guitar for the other three members), the group's actual contributions were limited almost entirely to vocal tracks.

The photos in the "film strip" on the left side of the back cover are from two episodes of The Monkees'' TV series.

Early pressings of the LP cover, as well as side 1 of the label, featured the misspelled song title "Papa Jean's Blues" (Catalog number COM/COS 101).

[15] All tracks are written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, except where noted.Credits adapted from 2021 Rhino LP.

[16] The Monkees Additional musicians Unconfirmed personnel and duties Technical ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

Psychedelic Bubble Gum: Boyce & Hart, The Monkees, and Turning Mayhem Into Miracles.