From the ‘Ape’ to his cousin the ‘Monkey’, who it appears is more popular by far with the songwriting fraternity.
“Brass Monkey” is a song by the American rap rock group Beastie Boys. It was a single released from their first album Licensed to Kill. It is also on the Beastie Boys’ compilation album Solid Gold Hits. It samples “Bring It Here” by Wild Sugar. The song features the Roland TR-808 drum machine. The song is named after an alcoholic drink of the same name, which is mentioned several times throughout the song.
“Dance Monkey” is a song by Australian singer Tones and I, released in May 2019 as the second single from Tones and I’s debut EP The Kids Are Coming. The song was produced and mixed by Konstantin Kersting. “Dance Monkey” topped the official singles charts in over 30 countries and peaked within the top ten of many others, including the United States. The song broke the record for the most weeks at number one on the Australian singles chart at 24 non-consecutive weeks. It also broke the record for the most weeks spent at the top of the UK Singles Chart by a female artist with 11 weeks at the top. When it hit number four in the US, it became the first top-five hit solely written by a woman in over eight year.
“Dance Monkey” is a song by Magic! taken from their 2016 album ‘Primary Colours’. Magic! frontman Nasri Atweh admitted to Rolling Stone that after “Rude” became a hit, he grew tired of singing it. “I started to feel like a dancing monkey,” he said. “I’m definitely a good sport. I had fun singing ‘Rude’ every time. But when you do it so many times in a row every day you start to feel that way. Especially as creative beings.” The experience ended up inspiring “Dance Monkey.”
“Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey” is a song by the English band the Beatles from their 1968 double album The Beatles (also known as the “White Album”). It was written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon-McCartney. The lyrics contain sayings the Beatles heard from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, with whom they studied Transcendental Meditation in India in early 1968. In his subsequent comments on the song, Lennon said it addressed his bandmates’ initial reaction to his relationship with Yoko Ono. Recorded early in the sessions for the White Album, the track typifies Lennon and the Beatles’ return to a rock sound in 1968 after their psychedelic period.
“Lab Monkey” is a song by Alice In Chains from their 2013 album ‘The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here’. Guitarist Jerry Cantrell says that a lot of the songs on the album started with collected riffs jammed by him and, drummer Sean Kinney. “It would be me and him in a dressing room or during a sound check,” he said. “It can be voice messages recorded on a phone. (Alice associate) Baldy will be following us around with a camera, and we’ll be like, ‘Hey Baldy, record this!’ You’ll get home and have thirty or forty two-minute blips, a riff, or whatever. Then, you wade through that.
“Me and My Monkey” is a track from Williams’ fifth solo album, ‘Escapology’, which went to No.1 in eight countries. “Me and My Monkey” wasn’t released as a single, but still went on to become a live fan favourite. Robbie Williams told the story of this song to The Mail on Sunday: “I had a conversation with a girl in a pool in Singapore. She said, ‘How do you write a song?’ I said, ‘You write about anything that comes to mind: give me two things and I will write a song for you this afternoon.’ She said, ‘Monkeys and rollerblades.'” Before performing this song at his residency at Knebworth House in August 2003, Williams called it “a cautionary tale.” The lyrics appear to be about Williams’ tendency to engage in self-destructive behavior as a result of his fame, with the “monkey” referring to the British singer’s past cocaine addiction. Williams struggled with cocaine dependency throughout his early career, and checked into rehab to overcome it in 1997.
