In defence of Davy, he was actually the second most prolific songwriter in The Monkees after Mike Nesmith, and came up with a handful of genuine classics. A case in point is 'You And I' on the album Instant Replay, a great slice of acid rock featuring Neil Young on lead guitar. (Not to be confused with the song of the same title he co-wrote with Micky for the Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart LP and rerecorded for the 90s reunion album Justus).

Micky wasn't really a songwriter, meaning the ones he penned were sometimes stunningly original (e.g. 'Randy Scouse Git').

Thanks to Rhino records The Monkees back catalogue is now more than twice the size as it was when they split, and a lot of the best stuff has only recently seen the light of day. Don't be blinded by the whole manufactured image issue: they endorsed Hendrix and Tim Buckley, were friends with Zappa (he is in the movie and one of the TV episodes) and made pioneering use of the Moog synthesizer. The rate of brilliance to dross is about 3:1, I'd say.