Mike Nesmith’s And the Hits Just Keep on Comin’ isn’t a collection of his hits (although it does have “Different Drum”). The name of the album is his reaction to the suits at the record label telling him he needed to come up with more hit songs.
In a similar vein, The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands sounds like an album where multiple bands are presented. They are – but they’re all just the Turtles in different clothes.
Good catch! One more reason for the ironic title was the fact that the recording budget didn’t allow to record with a whole band, so it’s just Nesmith on vocals and (mostly acoustic) guitar and his longtime partner Red Rhodes, who is a fantastic player, on pedal steel. The result is wonderful. That’s my favorite version of “Different Drum”.