Here's a rare Monkees collectible to start off your new year, one that I have never come across previously. A seemingly original 1969 promotional poster for The Monkees' seventh album, Instant Replay, recently sold for $335.99 on eBay!

The latest episode of Zilch spotlights one of the Live Almanac's favorite albums, Instant Replay! Settle back and listen to  David "Ghosty" Wills, Melinda Gildart, Jeff Gehringer, and host Jeff Hulit navigate Side 1 of the 1969 LP, the first to be issued after Peter Tork had left The Monkees. And to top it all off, this episode is sponsored by Wine Down Nashville and its proud proprietors, Amy and John Billings. Enjoy, and don't forget to check out all things Instant Replay in the archives of The Monkees Live Almanac!

UPDATE 11/15/2019: Here's Part 2 of the Instant Replay roundtable discussion on Zilch!

Check out these great scans of the original Colgems cassette for The Monkees' seventh album, 1969's Instant Replay​, courtesy of longtime Monkees fan, collector, and author Ed Reilly:

Instant Replay, The Monkees' seventh album and the first to be released in the post-Peter Tork era, was issued by Colgems Records on February 15, 1969:

Thanks a lot to Yan Helgos Folkerts‎ for sharing this review of The Monkees' seventh LP, Instant Replay, that was originally published in the February 15, 1969 issue of Cash Box. 

​The year 1969 was a tough one for The Monkees. Their TV show was long canceled, their special 33⅓ Revolutions Per Monkee was kind of a disaster (running up against the Academy Awards), and Peter Tork left the band. Despite all this, Instant Replay, the album they released in February of 1969, is actually quite good. Made up of a couple older songs they dug out of the vaults and newly recorded tracks done separately by each member, there are moments of pop brilliance sprinkled throughout and each of the remaining Monkees truly shines (some more brightly or oddly than the others). The old songs are perfectly Monkees-sounding; “Tear Drop City” was written by old friends Boyce & Hart and rocks like the "Last Train to Clarksville" knockoff it is, and "I Won’t Be the Same Without Her" is the kind of melancholy Goffin & King ballad Nesmith was always able to knock out of the park. Of the songs done by individual Monkees, they break down along more or less predictable lines. Nesmith’s two songs are strong country-rock ballads; “Don’t Wait for Me” gently rollicks along and “While I Cry” has one of Mike’s tenderest vocals. Micky’s two are weird and musically scattered, but impressive all the same; “Just a Game” is a tightly wound song that sounds like one of Davy’s showstoppers with its guts ripped out, while "Shorty Blackwell" is harder to describe and hearing it makes you wish Micky had really dedicated himself to music after the Monkees split. If he could have cranked out a whole album as "Broadway on acid" as this, it would have been amazing. Davy’s songs played to his strengths but showed some artistic growth too. Yeah, he was reliably sappy (“Don’t Listen to Linda”) and happily bouncy (“Me Without You"), but he also showed an impressively adult side on Goffin & King’s sophisticated ballad “Man Without a Dream” and, with the help of Neil Young (!) on guitar, rocked very hard on a very tough-sounding “You and I.” When you add up the catchy pop tunes, the weirdness, the heartfelt emotion, and the overall sound of the record, it stands with the group’s best work. Too bad it was ignored at the time and the band quickly splintered afterwards. [The bonus tracks added to Rhino's 1995 reissue make the album even more impressive. The non-album single "Someday Man" is one of Davy's best songs; he gives the Paul Williams-penned track a healthy dose of bravado and style. The rest are outtakes and alternate versions, including a spare take of Nesmith's classic psych-country "Carlisle Wheeling."]

On July 18th, 1966 at RCA Hollywood, Michael Nesmith acted as producer during a recording session that resulted in several of my favorite Monkees songs. Beginning at 8pm that evening and working until midnight, Nez was assisted by engineer Hank Cicalo while leading members of the Wrecking Crew (including Glen Campbell) along with his fellow Monkee, Peter Tork, through multiple takes of "I Won't Be The Same Without Her," "Sweet Young Thing," and the first version of "You Just May Be The One."

Andrew Sandoval documented the session in his book, The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story of the '60s TV Pop Sensation, and for this blog post, we'll place the spotlight on Gerry Goffin and Carole King's "I Won't Be The Same Without Her":

Seemingly meant to be considered for The Monkees' debut album, "I Won't Be The Same Without Her" was passed over for inclusion on October 1966's The Monkees and wouldn't find a home on a Monkees LP until 1969's Instant Replay.