Video: 'The Monkees - 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee (Complete TV Special)' (Dec. 17, 1968, audio at 51:37)

(Tuesday, December 17, 1968, 7:30-10:30 p.m. PST) — Peter Tork performed his final duty as a member of 1960s incarnation of The Monkees today at Wally Heider Studio 3 in Hollywood, recording vocals and playing banjo on an off-kilter rendition of the standard “California Here I Come,” for the closing credits of the band’s next TV special “33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee,” which would air Apr. 14, 1969, on NBC.

Tork had announced that he was leaving the group after the band finished taping the television special in late November 1968. It reportedly cost him $160,000 to buy himself out of his contract.

Tork would sign up as a Monkee again when the group reunited in 1986.