Richard Field on Management and Information Science

Home > Archive > Monkey Songs


My theory is that every artist has a song with the word "monkey" in the title or lyric. Here's a sample.

If you send me your artist/song/lyric I'll add it to the table. Richard.Field@ualberta.ca

Also: Does anyone know the highest charting song with the word "monkey" in the title?

Artist Song or Album Title Lyric
Bare Naked Ladies If I had a Million Dollars "Haven't you always wanted a monkey?"
Bare Naked Ladies Another Postcard "You can't imagine so many monkeys in the daily mail"
Beatles, The Everybody's got something to hide except for me and
my monkey
"Everybody's got something to hide except for me and
my monkey"
Dave Matthews Band Proudest Monkey "Now I am the proudest monkey you've ever seen"
Divinyls, The Monkey Grip (Album Title)  
Elvis Presley Too Much Monkey Business "Too much monkey business for me to be involved in"
Foo Fighters Monkey Wrench "I'll Never Be Your Monkey Wrench "
Jethro Tull Steel Monkey

Bungle in the Jungle

"I'm a monkey puzzle and the lid is on"

"Walking through forests of palm tree apartments, scoff at the monkeys who live in their dark tents"

Leonard Cohen First We Take Manhattan "I loved those presents that you sent me, the monkey, the plywood violin"
Monkees, The Hey Hey We're the Monkees "Hey Hey we're the monkees"
Specials, The Monkey Man "This one's for the bouncers. Big, big Monkey Man"
Rolling Stones Monkey Man "I'm a fleabit peanut monkey"
Traditional The Monkey's Wedding "The monkey married the baboon's sister"
George Michael Monkey "Why can't you do it? Why can't you set your monkey free?"
Counting Crows Monkey "All dressed up, No place to go, Hey monkey, when you gonna show your face around me?"
Coal Chamber

Peter Gabriel

Shock the Monkey "don't you know you gotta shock the monkey"
Black Eyed Peas Monkey Business (Album Title)  
Pixies, The Monkey Gone to Heaven "this monkey's gone to heaven"
Beastie Boys Brass Monkey "drink brass monkey -- here's how you feel"
Robbie Williams Me and My Monkey "There was me and my monkey ... "He said 'Son, you ever been to Vegas?'"
Gary Glitter The Clapping Song "The monkey chewed tobacco on the street car line"
Bonobo Dial M for Monkey (Album Title)  
Steely Dan Your Gold Teeth -- I am told this is a cover song of "Goin' to Chicago", sung by Jimmie Rushing in the 1930s with the Count Basie Orchestra.

Monkey in Your Soul (from Pretzel Logic)

"There ain't nothing in Chicago for a monkey woman to do"

This is an old blues lyric.  It is used in dozens of blues songs.

One of them was "Monkey Man Blues" by Ida Cox.

 

Three Dog Night Play Something Sweet (Brickyard Blues) "Play somethin' sweet and make it funky
Just let me lay back and grin like a monkey"
XTC The Smartest Monkeys "We're the smartest monkeys"
Headstones, The

Traveling Wilburys

Tweeter and the Monkey Man "Tweeter and the Monkey Man were hard up for cash"
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles Mickey's Monkey  
A Perfect Circle Weak and Powerless "Someone feed the monkey while I dig in search of China"
Tokens, The Monkey Vendor  
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy I Wanna Be Like You "And be just like the other men I'm tired of monkeying around"
Terence Trent d'Arby Wishing Well "Hugging like a monkey see, Monkey do."
Widespread Panic Sleepy Monkey "I woke to the noise of monkey's knuckles
Knocking loud on my door."
Bob Dylan

(covered by Grateful Dead, The)

Monkey and the Engineer "Once upon a time there was an engineer.
Drove a locomotive both far and near.
Accompanied by a monkey that would sit on a stool
Watching everything the engineer would move"
Hot Chip Over and Over "Over and over and over and over, like a monkey with a miniature symbol"
Dandy Warhols Welcome to the Monkey House (Album Title)  
Low Monkey "Tonight you will be mine
Tonight the monkey dies"
Eurythmics Missionary Man "There was a woman in the jungle, And a monkey on a tree"
Debbie Reynolds Aba Daba Honeymoon "said the monkey to the chimp"
Skid Row Monkey Business "To me it's just monkey business"
Coney Hatch Monkey Bars "We are playing in the monkey bars
Sittin' by the streets just countin' the cars"
Chuck Berry Too Much Monkey Business  
Jonathan Coulton Code Monkey

My Monkey

The album "Smoking Monkey"

De-evolving

SkullCrusher Mountain (?)

"Code Monkey think maybe manager want to write god damned login page himself"

"I’m sick or your smile, your nothing to say. Your monkey, your middle" (Overhead)

"There's a monkey in the future for you, and there's nothing modern science can do" (De-evolving)

"I made this half-pony half-monkey monster to please you"

alicedean best friend "I got a monkey, he lives on my back,"
Simon & Garfunkle At the Zoo "The monkeys stand for honesty, giraffes are insincere..."
 
Warren Zevon Genius "I've got a bitter pot of je ne se qua, guess what, I'm stirring it with a monkey's paw."
 
Tom Waits Mysery is the River of the World "The higher that the monkey can climb, the more he shows his tail..."
 
Bette Midler One Monkey Don't Stop No Show  
Boozoo Chavez Who Stole My Monkey  
Squirrel Nut Zippers Trou Macacq "This is the story of the trou macacq, the pine box derby, the monkey track"
Major Lance Monkey Time "Well, you get yours, cause-a I got mine
For the Monkey Time (Monkey Time)"
Aerosmith Monkey On My Back  
Rush The Main Monkey Business  
White Zombie Grease Paint and Monkey Brains  
Amy Winehouse Monkey Man  
Elvis Costello & The Imposters Monkey to Man  
Too Short Shake That Monkey  
Tubes, The Monkey Time (cover on 1983's "Outside Inside")  
Oingo Boingo Album is "Dark at the End of the Tunnel" -- Song is "Right to Know" "No one knows what's on his mind except him and his monkey"
Mark Knopffler Save the organ grinder, kill the monkey  
Marty Crawfitt Be nice to my monkey  
Ten Years After A space in time "Got no monkey on my back"
Delbert Mclinton   "When you turn a man into a monkey, that monkey's gonna monkey around"
Genesis Tonight, Tonight, Tonight "I'm coming down, coming down like a monkey, but its alright Like a load on your back that you cant see, ooh but its alright Try to shake it loose, cut it free, just let it go, get it away from me."
Bush
monkey  
Tool right in two  
Coal chamber shock the monkey  
Ren and stimpy I want to be a monkey  
TLC shock dat monkey  
Elliot smith new monkey  
Ida Cox Monkey Man Blues  
Baltimora Tarzan Boy Hide and seek

We play along while rushing cross the forest

Monkey business on a sunny afternoon

Chagall Buevara (1991) Monkey Grinder Collar goes tight
Fat man's cranking
And the monkey's reeled in
Don't he look a little blue?
Mad Tea Party On the album...73% Post-Consumer Novelty (2004) "Like  a monkey likes coconuts"
Toots and the Maytals Monkey Man This is the original reggae version covered by Amy Winehouse, No Doubt and many others.
The Kills Monkey 23  
Dave Bartholemew The Monkey (Speaks His Mind)  
Menomena Monkeys Back  
Minus the Bear Monkey! Knife! Fight!  
Saves the Day Monkey (Will Bite)  
Baby Huey Monkeyman  
Collins and Harlan (1907) In Monkey Land  
Derrick Harriot Monkey Ska  
Devo Go Monkey Go  
The Five Du-Tones Monkey See Monkey Do  
The Flares The Monkey Walk  
Gino Washington Come Monkey With Me  
The Golden Catalinas Can Your Monkey Do the Dog?  
Jerry Warren Monkey Walk  
Joe Johnston Monkey Versus Robot  
The Persians Let's Monkey Again  
The Pygmies Don't Monkey With Tarzan  
The Tempos Monkey Doo  
Bad Haggis Monkey Tree  
Sage Monkey Bars Different from the Coney Hatch song
Yes Yes Juliette Monkey God  
Klute Monkey Say Monkey Do  
Usherhouse Monkey Strange  
Traveling Wilburys Tweeter and the Monkey Man  
Warren Zevon "Leave My Monkey Alone" Chorus: Leave my monkey alone ...
The Pixies "This Monkey's Gone to Heaven"  
     
     
     
     
     
     

For a website about old-time monkey songs, see:

http://parlorsongs.com/issues/2003-10/thismonth/featurea.asp

http://parlorsongs.com/issues/2003-10/thismonth/featureb.asp


Home | Research | Courses | Recommended | Contact | Archive

All contents Copyright 2009 by Richard H G Field. All Rights Reserved. Contact: richard.field@ualberta.ca