Music: Last Train to Clarksville

The Monkees were, in some ways, victims of history. They rose to popularity in a time when other performers, like The Beatles, were not only singing but writing their own songs and playing their own instruments. When the news broke out that they didn't play their instruments on their albums, it caused a major stir, and their legacy has been associated with musical fakery and corporate control.

It's unfair to lump them in with frauds like Milli Vanilli, however; The Monkees were no less "genuine" than modern boy bands, and eventually, they did gain creative control of their music. Their rebellion against music supervisor Don Kirshner has also endeared them to the punk rock crowd. To be fair, though, Kirshner did hire some of the best songwriting talent of the era to write Monkees songs, including "Last Train to Clarksville," written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. It's a catchy song, and the underlying anti-war subtext is suprisingly edgy for a manufactured piece of pop music: