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In the fall of 1969, The Monkees television series premiered in syndication on CBS. Post Foods quickly conducted a cross-promotional exercise through their various cereal products like Alpha-Bits, Honeycomb, and Frosted Rice Krinkles by releasing Monkees cardboard singles that were printed onto the outside of the cereals' boxes. Sometime in 1970, Post began a special offer for The Monkees Golden Hits, which collected all of the cereal box singles onto one exclusive vinyl LP that was unavailable in record stores. A coupon inside their cereal boxes advertised the album, which could be purchased for $1.50 and 2 box tops from any of the Post cereals. Thanks a lot to Monkees collector Ed Reilly for sharing scans of the coupon found inside an Alpha-Bits box below:   Issued by The Monkees' label Colgems Records, The Monkees Golden Hits is hard to find nowadays in mint condition and is a sought-after collectible:  (The Monkees Golden Hits images courtesy of Monkee45s.net) 
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Check out this article by James Grant, who just began work on his own blog, about Monkees cereal box records. Thanks, James, for alerting the Live Almanac about your work!  One of the first releases in celebration of The Monkees' 50th Anniversary is a limited edition retro-style item paying homage to Monkees records you could find on cereal boxes in 1970. Note the sticker's disclaimer: *Milk not included. To play, you may need to adjust your tracking weight or use a few nickles, just like you did in 1970.  Here's a photo of the front of each cardboard record:  Cereal Box Singles comes with four playable cardboard records and includes the following Monkees songs: "Last Train to Clarksville" "Words" (previously unreleased TV mix) "I Never Thought It Peculiar" (previously unreleased TV mix) "Valleri" (previously unreleased TV mix) Here's a look at the "Valleri" single. The other three cardboard records feature the same design as below:   (Images courtesy of Bull Moose Twitter account)  A pair of new Monkees products will hit retail on Tuesday, January 19, 2016. Rhino Records is launching its "Start Your Ear Off Right" campaign with titles that will be made available exclusively at participating music shops. Be sure to click the link below to search for where you can purchase these items (though they are also currently available as a pre-order from such online venues as Barnes and Noble and Bull Moose). Cereal Box Singles (Image courtesy of Rhino Records) In the 1970s, U.S. cereal companies would release free records that came with the cereal box.  Cereal Box Singles is a limited edition release that will feature "Cereal Box" cardboard records including the following Monkees songs: "Last Train to Clarksville" "Words" (previously unreleased TV mix) "I Never Thought It Peculiar" (previously unreleased TV mix) "Valleri" (previously unreleased TV mix) In 1987, Monkees collector Ed Reilly highlighted the Monkees cereal box records in Monkee Business Fanzine. CLASSIC ALBUM COLLECTION  (Image courtesy of Rhino Records) Classic Album Collection will be a 10 CD set featuring the nine original Monkees albums, plus a bonus disc of singles:
John Hughes, co-producer of the upcoming Monkees Blu-ray box set, recently told the Zilch! podcast team that the Classic Album Collection will also be available as a vinyl box set and as a digital download.
Check out below a portion of the discography listing for The Monkees from the AllMusic website (under the Compilations tab). It contains some interesting titles, like "Complete Albums Box" and "Cereal Box: Singles."  Are these possible releases being planned for the 50th Anniversary? Once you click on the "Complete Albums Box" or "Cereal Box: Singles" entries, you receive this message:  These titles, of course, could be completely erroneous, but I thought it was worth highlighting in the event that sites like AllMusic receive a heads-up about future releases from the record labels. UPDATE: After a little more research, it looks like Rhino is indeed releasing something called Cereal Box Records. This listing and description was found on the website of online retailer Bull Moose (but has yet to be announced officially by Monkees.com or Rhino Records): Back in the 1970's, U.S. cereal companies did several "cereal box 7-inch LPs." These were free records that came with the cereal box. This will be a collection of four of them with songs from The Monkees. The four cardboard records advertised as part of the package include the following songs: "Last Train to Clarksville" "Words" (Previously Unreleased TV Mix) "I Never Thought It Peculiar" (Previously Unreleased TV Mix) "Valleri" (Previously Unreleased TV Mix) According to Bull Moose, the release date is listed as January 19, 2016. Here's the image of the set as shown on their website:  (Image courtesy of BullMoose.com) On top of that, Bull Moose is also showing a 10 CD box set, Classic Album Collection, with a scheduled release date of January 19, 2016. Here's their description of it: 10 CD complete album collection spanning The Monkees' career, including a bonus disc of singles.  (Image courtesy of BullMoose.com) "Star Collector" was a longtime feature in Monkee Business Fanzine. Monkees collector and author Ed Reilly would break down a wide range of memorabilia, including everything from toys, records, and much more. In this column, Ed examines Monkees cereal box records that were originally issued through Post Cereals in 1969 and 1970. For easier reading, click to enlarge.  |
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