Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
Apr 24, 2026 · 17 min · 14 segments
Hit Parade is on a brief break, but if you need a daily dose of fascinating stories, check out History Daily. Host Lindsay Graham (the history guy! not the senator!) explores what happened "on this…
Chris MolanphyHost[instrumental music playing]
Thirty-five-year-old musician Mike Nesmith sits on a deck chair on a rocky bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
Sitting next to him are three beautiful women.
They give Mike flirty looks as they sip cocktails, but it's all for show.
Mike and the women aren't actually flirting.
They're performing for the camera and film crew on the bluff with them.
Since his heyday as a member of the '60s boy band The Monkees, he has struggled to find consistent success in his solo career, but that's not for lack of trying.
Mike has experimented with all manner of different ways to promote his music.
At one point, he even released a tie-in novel to accompany one of his albums.
His latest venture is this music video, which he hopes will promote the newest release.
But as Mike continues to mug for the camera, behind him, a large beach umbrella collapses in the wind, ruining the tape.
The director calls for a pause in filming while the crew fix the problem.
Waiting for the next take, Mike gets out of his deck chair and moves toward a craft services table stocked with food and drinks.
As Mike picks through what's on offer, he hears two crew members snickering and making comments about this absurd project.
They stop when they realize he can hear them and quickly scoot away to make themselves busy.
Mike just pours himself a coffee and smiles.
It's not the first time someone has mocked one of his ideas, but this time he'll be sure to have the last laugh.
Despite the doubts of others, Mike Nesmith is convinced there is a market for narrative-driven videos within the music industry.
He's put thousands of dollars of his own money into this project in the hope that it will propel Rio up the charts.
The song won't do as well as he hoped, but this is just the beginning of a new way of enjoying music, and Mike's groundbreaking idea will eventually lead to the creation of the MTV Network, which will begin broadcasting on August 1st, 1981.
[instrumental music playing]
Thirty-five-year-old musician Mike Nesmith sits on a deck chair on a rocky bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
Sitting next to him are three beautiful women.
They give Mike flirty looks as they sip cocktails, but it's all for show.
Mike and the women aren't actually flirting.
They're performing for the camera and film crew on the bluff with them.
Since his heyday as a member of the '60s boy band The Monkees, he has struggled to find consistent success in his solo career, but that's not for lack of trying.
Mike has experimented with all manner of different ways to promote his music.
At one point, he even released a tie-in novel to accompany one of his albums.
His latest venture is this music video, which he hopes will promote the newest release.
But as Mike continues to mug for the camera, behind him, a large beach umbrella collapses in the wind, ruining the tape.
The director calls for a pause in filming while the crew fix the problem.
Waiting for the next take, Mike gets out of his deck chair and moves toward a craft services table stocked with food and drinks.
As Mike picks through what's on offer, he hears two crew members snickering and making comments about this absurd project.
They stop when they realize he can hear them and quickly scoot away to make themselves busy.
Mike just pours himself a coffee and smiles.
It's not the first time someone has mocked one of his ideas, but this time he'll be sure to have the last laugh.
Despite the doubts of others, Mike Nesmith is convinced there is a market for narrative-driven videos within the music industry.
He's put thousands of dollars of his own money into this project in the hope that it will propel Rio up the charts.
The song won't do as well as he hoped, but this is just the beginning of a new way of enjoying music, and Mike's groundbreaking idea will eventually lead to the creation of the MTV Network, which will begin broadcasting on August 1st, 1981.
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