Rhino executive John Hughes speaks to Ken Mills about "Good Times!"

On Episode #49 of Zilch! A Monkees Podcast (made available on February 9, 2016), John Hughes of Rhino Records (The Monkees' record label) spoke with Ken Mills about the brand new Monkees studio album, Good Times! Here are some highlights of their conversation:

• The producer of Good Times! is Adam Schlesinger, who is also the bassist for several bands, including Fountains of Wayne. "He's going to craft the sound. He's making the song choices along with me. Working very closely with all three guys. That was a little unclear in the Rolling Stone article. It is Micky. It is Peter. It is Mike. All three are on the album and full participants…playing on tracks, singing (obviously), contributing songs...it's really all The Monkees, and that includes Davy."

• ​Davy Jones, who passed away on February 29, 2012, will be a part of the project by way of Neil Diamond's "Love to Love," first recorded in 1967 but never officially released on an original Monkees album. It will appear on Good Times! in a reworked version with Davy's lead vocal. "A new approach to 'Love to Love.' You think you know 'Love to Love' - you do not know 'Love to Love' as it will appear on Good Times!"

• Hughes: "My role is 'traffic cop.' I conceptualized the thing with some people here...including Andrew Sandoval...and it started off going back to Adam and a Fountains of Wayne Song called 'It Must Be Summer.' About a year and a half, two years ago, I kept listening to this song, and I just thought, 'God, that's a Monkees song.'"

• "It's a hundred percent a Monkees song and wouldn't it be cool if we did a new Monkees album and Adam Schlesinger was the producer. So, I just reached out and things started from there."

• Hughes: "The direction we're going is to create a classic, timeless Monkees album that's not tied to any current sound. It's 'How will this album sound in 1967?'  'How does this album sound in 1977?' You can complete this album in any decade and it would fit. You can play it thirty years from now and it will sound like a classic Monkees album. Adam and I, and The Monkees themselves, would all agree that Pisces [The Monkees fourth album, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.] was the template...it was a combination of songs they contributed along with classic songwriters."

• On reaching out to songwriters who were probably Monkees fans to contribute to Good Times!: "We put the word out, and boy were we floored." Rivers Cuomo (Weezer), Noel Gallagher (Oasis), Andy Partridge (XTC), Zach Rogue (Rogue Wave), Ben Gibbard (Death Cab For Cutie), and Paul Weller (The Jam/The Style Council) have all been announced as contributing to Good Times!

• ​Hughes discussed Rhino's outlook on the new album: "We have so many plans for this...and now that we have seen the reaction...this is a priority for Rhino in 2016 and I couldn't be happier....I can't tell you how excited the guys [The Monkees] are about this."

• Mills asked Hughes if any members of The Monkees' touring band will play on the album: "That's really an Adam call. I do think you are going to have some surprise guests playing on the album."

• Hughes on the inspiration of the album title, Good Times!: "The title came from the Nilsson song of the same name. We were listening to a bunch of demos and that one really just jumped out...Micky was singing along with it right there in the office at the top of his lungs...It finishes and just off the top of his head, Micky says, 'You know what, that's the name of the album...Good Times.'" Hughes added: "That's what it's about. The Monkees are about good times."

• ​​Rhino's direction to producer Schlesinger: "Be Adam. And make a classic Monkees album. That's the only direction." Hughes noted that Schlesinger is "a Monkees fan and a power pop guy, and that's why he's spearheading this project."

• Weezer's Rivers Cuomo graduated from the same Connecticut high school as Peter Tork, and took inspiration from Tork. Weezer later covered "I'm a Believer."

• Hughes on the reaction of the music press to a new Monkees album in 2016: "It was really phenomenal how it was presented, not only from Rolling Stone but from other outlets like Stereogum and Pitchfork, which are traditionally very indie-rock leaning. It wasn't snarky or dismissive at all. The comments on social media are phenomenally positive. It's just amazing to see and very heartening, and tells us we're going the right way."

• ​Regarding classic Monkees songwriters appearing on the album: "All tentative - Adam has real creative control regarding the final track listing. But there's a Boyce and Hart song that's really cool called 'Whatever's Right.' It's very much a Boyce and Hart song. You kinda hear it and you go, 'Ok, that could have been a single. Why didn't they do that song?' It's not another 'Tear Drop City' or 'Last Train to Clarksville.' It's a really cool song in its own right. It just never got done." There's a song by Jeff Barry and Joey Levine that is being considered, as well as a Gerry Goffin/Carol King composition called "Wasn't Born to Follow." Hughes notes that there is a Monkees backing track in existence for the Goffin/King tune, and that it's "an 'As We Go Along' - type song, a little psychedelic, a ballad for Micky to stretch on."

• Michael Nesmith's "I Know What I Know" will appear on the album, and Nez wants Micky to sing it. "It's very theatrical, very much almost like a Broadway ballad. He really wants Micky to sing it. It's not that Mike doesn't want to sing the song. He wrote it and he thought, 'You know what, this will sound great if Micky sings it.'" Hughes said Nez has always had a "tremendous respect for Micky's vocal talents and abilities." 

• Peter Tork has also contributed several songs for consideration, and Peter and Adam Schlesinger are "working out which ones will be on the final album. And they're very cool." Hughes said Peter "really kind of embraced the concept of creating a classic Monkees album. His headspace was in that 'For Pete's Sake' mind space...kind of like peace is possible in this world, very much a Sixties vibe. And he hit it out of the park...that's the message he wants to get across. The lyrics are really good."

• On revisiting Neil Diamond's "Love to Love" for Good Times!: "Micky loves that song. We really wanted to have a Davy presence on the album that was very respectful and this was a way to do it," Hughes said. "We're gonna have Micky do some harmonizing with Davy on that track. Adam is probably going to do some new instrumentation to it. It's going to really please the Davy fans out there."​

• Hughes confirmed that Micky will be drumming on several tracks on the new album.

• Hughes and Schlesinger were planing on visiting Michael to determine his role. "We're going to go up there and visit him and work it out." Micky didn't fully know what Mike's participation would be at the time of the Rolling Stone interview in early February, and Hughes and Schlesinger were also unsure (at the time of the podcast) of those details. "You know, Nez is Nez," Hughes said. "And we love him for that. He's very much an artist. He very much wants to believe in what he is contributing to. We're going to go up there and visit him and work it out next week." Hughes added: "Definitely going to get that 12-string over his shoulder and get him to play on some stuff."

• Harry Nilsson wrote the title track "Good Times" for The Monkees. It was attempted in 1968 with Michael Nesmith producing and playing guitar. "Micky loved that song so much," Hughes said. "It was a demo that had been sitting in the Rhino vaults for decades." There was a Nilsson guide vocal completed in 1968, and Micky wants to sing it as a duet with Nilsson for the new album.

• Hughes noted that the album cover art for Good Times! is polarizing. "We thought here is a peek into a Monkees' fans school notebook - whether they were in high school in '86 when they were on MTV, or in '97 when Justus was out - here's what they were scribbling and here's what they were drawing. And there's something really endearing and very 'Monkees' about that. And to make those drawings certain iconography from the TV show was just a natural fit. You've got the spaceship from 'The Frodis Caper,' and there's all sorts of little Easter eggs there. I think the CD booklet is going to have a key, a glossary, so you can tell what each thing is. There's going to be a sticker sheet that comes inside the CD that has stickers of the iconography. The vinyl will come with a big giant sticker sheet." 

• The first single will be "You Bring the Summer," written by Andy Partridge of XTC: "He wrote it for The Monkees…It's going to be right up there next to the greats. It's going to be right up there next to 'Pleasant Valley Sunday.' I don’t want to oversell it, but it's really going to knock people's socks off. You hear it and you're like, 'Wow, it's a Monkees song!'" The plan is to have the single available for the general public by late March.

• The CD booklet will include quotes from all of the songwriters about what The Monkees meant to them. Ben Gibbard's quote includes the phrase, "It is not hyperbole to say that being asked to write a song for The Monkees is the absolute highlight of my career."

• Hughes said pre-orders for Good Times! will likely guarantee a high chart debut for the album. "Based on the pre-order activity, there's a real good chance for this album debuting pretty high on the charts."

• For those who have pre-ordered the CD on iTunes, there is a plan to roll out new tracks from Good Times! before the actual June 10 release date. 

John Hughes also spoke to Ken Mills regarding details of The Monkees' 50th Anniversary Tour and more. Their conversation regarding those topics will be transcribed in a future blog post.