Rest In Peace...Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
Rest In Peace...Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
Making Music, Making Merry, Making Monkee
December 10, 2021
The Merry Monkee
The Monkees Christmas episode originally aired on Christmas Day, Monday, December 25, 1967.
Overall, it’s a bit below average for the Monkees. It’s funny, it’s cute, it’s innocent, it’s groovy, it’s harmless, it’s fun, but there is not a lot to it, even for the Monkees, as it features the prefab four getting hired to babysit a stuffy rich boy on Christmas.
But it gets better as it goes along and has a very happy ending.
And then it gets even better after that. After the plot concludes, Mike, Micky, Peter, and Davy gather in front of a Christmas tree and sing “Riu Riu Chiu.” We don’t understand the words to this Spanish song but the way these four young guys who were actors, singers, beloved, disrespected, cancelled, forgotten, revived, and more sing it, it’s Christmas beautiful.
And then the guys give a message of peace.
11,363 Americans died in Vietnam in 1967. How many Vietnamese died?
After the episode, after the song, after the message of peace, the Monkees conclude the Christmas episode by inviting the crew, all the hard-working people behind the scenes, onto the set so they can say “Merry Christmas.”
Mike Nesmith gets lost in the scrum for a moment then gets back up there. His smiling face, his Texas drawl, his shaggy hair as the Monkees say Merry Christmas.
Mike Nesmith. Gone to a better place at 78.
A Monkee Christmas to us all. --TK
Friday, December 10, 2021