THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE: Riu Chiu

An infinite number of rockin' pop records can be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Today, this is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!

THE MONKEES: Riu Chiu

Traditional

Produced by Chip Douglas

Originally unreleased, from The Monkees television series episode "The Christmas Show," broadcast on December 25, 1967

It came upon a midnight dreary: the litany of misguided dismissals and insults. Boy band. Talentless. Prefabricated. Pabulum. Pap. Junk.

The Monkees have never been held in high regard by much of anyone except their fans. As fans, informed fans, we know better. 

Monkees fans are believers. It's a coincidence that the group's biggest hit was called "I'm A Believer," but it applies. Monkees fans believe in the Monkees. 

This belief remains, in spite of decades of ill-informed criticism. The primary truncheon wielded by the chuckleheaded has been about how the Monkees didn't play their own instruments. This was true initially, though hardly unique even then. But the Monkees did in fact become an actual rock group, a band. Among fans, and among the Monkees themselves, the jokes about this metamorphosis became familiar: Pinocchio had become a real boy, Leonard Nimoy had become a Vulcan, Adam West and Burt Ward had started boppin' bad guys with Batarangs. These comparisons illustrate how unlikely it all was. Unlikely? Hell, it should have been impossible. Yet somehow, the Monkees untied the strings that held them, and willed themselves into being a rockin' pop combo, performing in concert, touring, recording. Don't believe it? Come and watch them sing and play.

The Monkees transcended their artificial origin. That's the power of belief.

In fact, the Monkees were immensely talented. More so than they had to be. I mean, for the purposes of the TV project for which they were created, they didn't even need to be all that good, at least not musically. Really, our lads Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork just had to show up, be funny, be engaging, be cute for the little girls, and do what musical supervisor Don Kirshner told them to do. That formula could make million-selling records, make superstars, and make mountains of cold, hard cash.

The Monkees wanted more. They believed that they could do more, and they did.

The Christmas episode of The Monkees aired at the end of 1967, a big year for the Monkees. Their biggest year, actually; they probably outsold the Beatles. Nesmith once suggested that the Monkees outsold the Beatles and the Rolling Stones combined in '67, and later claimed that he was joking, and testing to see if anyone would take the claim seriously. But whether he made it up or whether it's true, it's plausible. The Monkees were really, really popular in 1967. It was all going to go away in 1968.

But when they did the Christmas episode, the Monkees were on top of the world. They had proven themselves to anyone willing to be sufficiently open-minded to accept, y'know, evidence. Granted, even as they started to play some of their own music, they were still managed, still part of a corporate machinery. But they had a hand in what they were doing.

In the Christmas episode, near the end of the show, the Monkees come on, just the four of them--Micky, Davy, Michael, and Peter--and do an a cappella performance of a 16th century Spanish folk song called "Riu Chiu." It's stunning. If you haven't seen it, you must. Talentless? Boy band? That's absurd. Watch the video. If you don't agree there's talent there, you aren't paying attention.

I'm a believer. Monkees fans are believers by definition. As we listen to the Monkees sing at Christmas, we acknowledge that Christmas itself invites belief. I am not religious by any stretch of the imagination. I don't belong to any church, and I'm not part of any organized faith. But I believe in the Golden Rule. I believe that we can be good, that we can be better than we are. That we can improve, and become the sort of souls we wish we could be. I believe that such belief transcends creed.

Belief is its own reward. Join us.

Believe.

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