My aunt MarSue gave me her old copy of The Monkees when I was 5. It was the only musical record I had back then. The rest of my selection back then were either Little Golden Books records or Disney stories on records. If I wanted to listen to music on my Fisher Price Record Player.

The Monkees were perfect back then. Their television show was in syndication and on when I got home from pre-school and day care, making it one of the few shows I got to watch consistently. The music was catchy, the plots simple, and the comedy is at the level of most little kids. When I found out they had records too, I was shocked. My aunt generously gave me her old one, which I listened to incessantly. I would play both sides over and over, probably irritating my family around me. Eventually "Last Train to Clarksville" became the song with which I cleaned my room. In two-minute bursts, I would act in a cleaning frenzy and then rest a bit before putting the needle back on the record and starting again. I still clean my apartment this way.