Perhaps the original boy-band, The Monkees story is more interesting than you would expect for a band of pretty boys which were put together for their looks rather than for any musical ability. This is mainly because they developed from puppets for the masses to songwriters and credible performers in their own right; well, apart from little Davy Jones anyway! Michael Nesmith contributed 'Mary, Mary' a song which was a strong favourite with the hip-hop crowd in later days whereas Mickey Dolenz offered the intriguingly-titled 'Randy Scouse Git' which didn't go down too well in Liverpool at the time. However, this compilation is largely based on material written by other songwriters of which '(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone', 'Last Train To Clarksville', 'Words' (all by Boyce/Hart) and 'A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You' (a Neil Diamond composition) are all timeless classics just like 'Porpoise Song', from the Monkees' satirical film 'Head', which is a fantastic example of psychedelia and unlikely to be ever covered by Boyzone. This is an ideal introduction to the Monkees especially as it contains several non-album singles but some of their other albums especially 'Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.'and 'Headquarters' are also worthy of further investigation.