I’m back and not as long a wait as last time!
Today I thought I’d take a look at some fun Monkee finds that I’ve happened to find in the last five months or so throughout my antique travels. It’s been a fruitful time for Monkees scores for me so I hope that the rest of 2025 keeps up the pace.
But before I go full tilt into today’s post I just have to give some background on my lifelong search for Monkees records.
As I’ve said before, back in the dark ages – from 1972 to say oh 1985 – it was a hard task finding used Monkees records at least in my neck of the woods. In that long ago era The Monkees were seen as so uncool and disposable that there just wasn’t much of a demand for their used records I guess.
At least I rarely found them and if I did it was at garage sales and you usually found the first three albums and they almost always looked as if they’d been used as frisbees – barely playable that’s for sure.
Fast forward a few decades or so and I have to say that I am so surprised to find plenty of used Monkees albums and many of them still in the shrink – and often fairly cheap!
Case in point – this blog post.
Of course I’ve also found some really offbeat mismatched records too and those have been fun as well.
So let’s get started.
I named this blog as if they were two lost Monkees episodes from the 1960s – “Monkees in the Shrink” and “Mismatched Monkees” – just for a bit of fun.
“Monkees in the Shrink”:
This first section is in honor of all the groovy Colgems Monkees albums I’ve found lately still with their shrink wrap intact. Some still have price tags (I love it when they still have the price!) and two of them looked as if they had never been played at all and if they were it was very light as there are no spindle marks on their labels at all.
So what did I find? Here’s the list:
“The Monkees” in both mono and stereo both RE pressings, “More of the Monkees” stereo RE pressing with the later Colgems label on the rear panel, “Headquarters” stereo first pressing, “Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, Ltd.” stereo first pressing and a first stereo pressing of The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees”.
The crazy thing is I paid under $10 for all of them except for “More of the Monkees” which was $20, a fair price considering it’s about as near mint as you can get.
The other thing that amazed me was just how good most of these records sound. Two of them – “More of the Monkees” and “Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, Ltd.” – are the two best sounding stereo pressings of these albums I own and I own quite a few.
Both of them are in pristine shape but neither of them had any sibilance issues that plague many Colgems pressings and the copy of “Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, Ltd.” in particular is what I would call a hot pressing as it just jumps out the speakers with a force and clarity that my other issues of this album lack.
If there are any Monkeefiles out there check the matrix numbers on any used copies of this album you find and if you see these (Side 1 – UZRS-9729 6S, Side 2 – UZRS-9730 6S) grab it because it’s one majorly dynamic pressing.
That’s not to say the other pressings don’t sound great, they do (well, okay this copy of The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees is a little worn and has some sibilance issues) it’s just those two I just mentioned sounded so outstanding it really surprised me.
“Mismatched Monkees”
Now here is the section of some odd finds. To top the list I found the cover for the 1969 album “Present” but inside it had both discs for the 1971 Colgems compilation Barrel Full of Monkees.
Luckily both discs were in VG shape and played amazingly well. This pressing is one of the early 70s flexi type thin vinyl issues but I was surprised at just how good they sounded. It was a little dirty but after a good cleaning it played just fine and with much more bass and detail then I was expecting.
And the best part it was in the dollar bin so that made it too hard to resist so I bought it.
In that same store I also found a somewhat dirty copy of the 1968 single “D. W. Washburn/It’s Nice to Be with You” with the “D. W. Washburn” label on both sides. Very cool oddity and again after a good cleaning this 45 sounds amazing. I am impressed that Colgems 45s in most cases play great even if they look terrible.
Another cheap find at that same store was a stereo copy of “The Monkees” stuck inside a really lovely mono cover. It was only $2 so I thought I’d get it just for the cover as the record looked a bit loved but again after cleaning the album it sounded so good that I decided to keep it.
(Btw, this stereo copy of “The Monkees” has a matrix that ends in 10S for Side 1 and 5S for Side 2 – for any Monkee nerds out there)
Of course I may need some therapy as I own several copies of this album but what the hey, right?
Well, that’s my latest Monkees finds for today. As usual you can see plenty of photos of these gems above and below and I also listed the matrix numbers below in case anyone was curious.
Until next time be healthy and well and happy spring and happy record hunting if you’re so inclined!
Matrix guide for the albums above:
Barrel Full of Monkees:
Side 1 – ZZRS-6425 3S
Side 4 – ZZRS-6426 3S
Side 2 – ZZRS-6427 4S
Side 3 – ZZRS-6428 3S
Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, Ltd (Stereo):
Side 1 – UZRS-9729 6S
Side 2 – UZRS-9730 6S
The Monkees (Mono RE):
Side 1 – TZRM-4687 9S
Side 2 – TZRM-4688 15S
The Monkees (Stereo RE):
Side 1 – TZRS-4689 2S
Side 2 – TZRS-4690 5S
More of the Monkees (Stereo RE):
Side 1 – TZRS-8693 20S
Side 2 – TZRS-8694 12S
Headquarters (Stereo):
Side 1 – UZRS-8397 12S
Side 2 – UZRS-8398 12S
The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees (Stereo):
Side 1 – WZRS-3519 5S
Side 2 – WZRS-3520 5S
Records, CDs and Music: 