History
The album's title had originally been considered for the Monkees' movie (released in 1968), and a song with that title (co-written by Davy Jones with Steve Pitts) had been recorded. The movie was retitled Head, however, and the song was subsequently shelved, remaining unreleased until 1990, when it appeared on the archival compilation album Missing Links Volume Two.
Changes reunited Jones and Micky Dolenz with producer Jeff Barry, who now had his own successful record label, Steed Records. As with the earliest Monkees recordings, Jones and Dolenz provided only their vocals, despite the album cover featuring them playing percussion, while the backing tracks were provided by session musicians. Several of the songs selected for the album were outtakes from previous album sessions: Barry resurrected his own produced outtake of his composition "99 Pounds" from the final Don Kirshner-supervised Monkees sessions in January 1967 that also yielded the hit single "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You"; Micky's "Midnight Train" was recorded during sessions for The Monkees Present and had been featured in CBS-TV reruns of The Monkees television show (most notably in "The Chaperone"); "I Never Thought It Peculiar," with vocals by Jones, was written by frequent Monkees collaborators Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart and was recorded during the sessions for More of the Monkees (1967).
Jones later stated that Changes was his least favorite Monkees effort, going so far as to comment in the 1994 Rhino Records CD version's liner notes that the album "was Jeff Barry and Andy Kim doing an Andy Kim album," adding that he had terrible memories of the recording sessions. Dolenz, while not lavishing praise on Changes, said that he was pleased to be invited to record new material. "I was quite happy to do it as long as somebody wanted to record me. It was simple as that." Dolenz added, "by that time, it was pretty obvious that the Monkees were over. Davy and I were still getting along, but we were mainly fulfilling a contractual obligation to a record company — that's what Changes is all about".[4]
Release
"Oh My My" became the first single from the album and made the Top 100 in the Billboard charts. Written by Barry and Kim, it is unrelated to the later 1973 Ringo Starr single of the same name. In addition to being the album's opening track and lead-off single, "Oh My My" was also accompanied by a rare promo film directed by Dolenz, showing him and Jones riding their motorcycles and horses. "Acapulco Sun" was released as a single in Mexico, becoming a minor hit there.
Changes appeared in June 1970 and initially failed to make the charts. Consequently, its initial pressing (COS-119) was limited and has become one of the more valuable Monkees albums. Jones announced shortly after its release that he was resuming his solo career, but he and Dolenz would release one more single together before reuniting with Boyce and Hart in 1976 as Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart. In the wake of the success of the Monkees' television show being rebroadcast on Saturday mornings by CBS (in which all but two tracks from Changes were featured in the reruns), the duo recorded "Do It in the Name of Love" and "Lady Jane" in September 1970. Instead of appearing under the "Monkees" name on Colgems Records, however, the single was released on Bell Records, the successor label to Colgems, and was credited to "Mickey Dolenz [sic] and Davy Jones". This was due to the prohibitive costs of licensing the Monkees name in the US; however, in Japan, the record was issued under the name "the Monkees".
Like all of the original Monkees albums from 1966 to 1970, Changes was reissued in September 1986 by Rhino Records (RNLP-70148) and made a belated entry into the Billboard album charts, reaching No. 152. The Rhino vinyl reissue was transferred from a vinyl copy of the album, the master tape having been lost over the years. For the 1994 CD reissue on Rhino, a first-generation master tape was used, which had been found at the Screen Gems publishing division.
Session outtakes
"Time and Time Again", a track written by Jones and Bill Chadwick and recorded in 1969, was originally slated to be on the album but was ultimately not chosen. The track later surfaced on the 1987 Monkees rarities collection Missing Links and again in remixed form as a bonus track on the 1994 CD release of Changes.[4]
Another song, "Steam Engine", was recorded in 1969 and was written and produced by Chip Douglas, featuring Dolenz on vocals. The song was not released at the time, due to a disagreement between Screen Gems and Douglas over session costs, and only saw the light of day via a Saturday morning rerun of the Monkees' TV series episode "Monkees on Tour". In 1979, it was finally issued on the semi-official Australian compilation album Monkeemania - 40 Timeless Hits, and in 1982 it was issued in the USA on the Rhino picture disc compilation Monkee Business.[5]
Two known outtakes from the sessions—"Ride Baby Ride" and "Which Way Do You Want It"—were thought to be lost as of the release of the 1994 Rhino CD.[4] On February 17, 2023, the latter was unveiled during the "Jeff Barry & The Monkees" event in Los Angeles, featuring Barry in conversation with Monkees historian Andrew Sandoval and broadcast online over Zoom.[6]
"Shake 'Em Up", a 1968 outtake from the sessions for The Birds, the Bees & the Monkees, written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and sung by Dolenz, was offered up for consideration to be included on Changes but was ultimately rejected by Barry in favor of new material. It was first issued in 1996 on another Monkees rarities collection, Missing Links Volume Three.[7]
Personnel
The Monkees
Additional musicians
Note: unknown for tracks 1–5, 7–8, 10
Unconfirmed personnel and duties
- Backing vocals, handclaps (6)
- Ned Albright – unknown (9)
- Bobby Bloom – unknown (9)
- Andy Kim – unknown (9)
- Steven Soles – unknown (9)
- Michael Anthony – unknown (12)
Technical
- Jeff Barry – producer, arranger (1–10)
- Mike Moran – engineer (1–5, 7–10)
- Ray Hall – engineer (6)
- Micky Dolenz – producer (11)
- Jimmie Haskell – arranger (12)
- Tommy Boyce – producer (12)
- Bobby Hart – producer (12)
- Brendan Cahill – music co-ordinator
- Rickyflicks – cover photo
