I got a little suitcase record player with the plastic turntable and tonearm, and the flip-over stylus for Christmas 1967. My mom told me that she and her friend Barb were in the department store, and had both decided on record players for their oldest kids. Now they were in the record department, totally clueless about what to buy as an album. They looked through a bunch, and came to this decision. The two albums on which the group members looked least like hippies were The Mamas & Papas and The Monkees. So Barb's daughter got TM&TP and I got "Headquarters." Before, I had some singles, but it was my first album.
In 2000, I was in Los Angeles for an event commemorating Harry Nilsson. We were taken to the RCA studio building. It was not being used as a studio. There was a section right inside the door set up as a call center, but beyond there, everything was the same as it always was. There were still control rooms with all the equipment covered in plastic. I wanted to take in the vastness of Studio A. I strolled away from the group and walked right up to the area where The Monkees must have recorded "Headquarters." It was, among other things, the same area where The Rolling Stones recorded "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction."
For some years now, I've had a massive 80CD set put together by a collector and engineer of every possible variation of every song known to have been recorded by The Monkees, together and separately.
We saw them in Jacksonville, FL on June 14, 2012 (no Mike).
