Beatles
and Monkees
Fans of '60s pop music will all recall the Beatles; they
were a global
phenomenon, "more popular than Jesus" in the ill-starred
John Lennon's
phrase. Such fans will also probably remember the Monkees,
a made-for-
TV band that often did not record their own material (think
of a cross
between New Kids on the Block and Milli Vanilli, if that's
not too dated a
reference). The Beatles' work holds up well and can be heard
on many
a radio today; the Monkees' work likewise is an AM staple.
In their day,
the Beatles were enormous and influential, but that takes
nothing away
from the Monkees--I have seen a poster advertising a concert
at which
Jimi Hendrix opened for them.
All of this preamble is a means to a point: that successful
originals beget
copies, and that some of those copies receive backing from
the major
media and become successful themselves. Successful or not,
they're still
copies, and no one would try to hold up "Last Train
to Clarksville" against
"Day Tripper". Below is a list of Beatles and
their Monkees; readers are
encouraged to send examples of their own to
docamazing@fastmail.fm.
