The A’s, The B’s and The Monkees

Rhino has announced its first release from the band in 2026. The A’s, The B’s and The Monkees, at long last, brings together on 2 CDs all of the band’s commercial singles originally released between 1966 and 1970, from “Last Train to Clarksville” b/w “Take a Giant Step” through “Oh My My” b/w “I Love You Better.” The set is due from Rhino on January 30.

All tracks are heard in their original single mixes, with audio supervised by Bill Inglot and sourced from tape.

Hopefully, they found all the tapes this time around. The 2006 deluxe version of More has a vinyl cleanup for the mono version of "I'm A Believer" and at least a few other mono tracks.

Aaron Kannowski
Uptown Sound
91.9 The Peak - Classic Hip Hop

Mine finally came in the mail, and "I'm A Believer" sounds like a tape source vs. the 2006 box set's vinyl cleanup.

Aaron Kannowski
Uptown Sound
91.9 The Peak - Classic Hip Hop

aaronk wrote:

Mine finally came in the mail, and "I'm A Believer" sounds like a tape source vs. the 2006 box set's vinyl cleanup.

Great! Always thrilled when tape source is used for 60's songs.

Favorite two expressions to live by on this board: "You can't download vinyl" and "Not everything is available on CD."

The CD booklet says that it was mastered by Dave Schultz and Bill Inglot. Both do excellent work.

The booklet is superb, with a paragraph dedicated to each song, and musician/producer/discography info for each song.

I compared this disc sonically against all my previous favorites for their big hits, and this disc is equal or better than anything I had before.

Last Train To Clarksville - much fuller bass than Arista's Then And Now (1986), slightly smaller dynamic range, less noisy source tape

I'm A Believer - from tape source for the first time; sounds just a teeny bit cleaner than Rhino's More Of The Monkees deluxe edition (2006), which is from vinyl

A Little Bit Me A Little Bit You - much improved EQ from Headquarters deluxe edition and extends about 3 beats longer

Pleasant Valley Sunday - tames the bass a little from the 1995 Greatest Hits, but otherwise the sound quality comparable; too bad the drums are mixed so low so that you really can't hear any of the great cymbal work from drummer Eddie HoH

Daydream Believer - tames the high end from Rhino Handmade's The Birds The Bees And The Monkees, slightly more dynamic range

Valleri - Is a differently EQ'd digital clone of The Birds The Bees And The Monkees deluxe edition.

Overall, this seems to be the best collection yet of the single versions. I'm quite impressed.

There's a lot of crap on the radio, but there's only one Crap From The Past.