The collective noun for ‘monkeys’ will be a troop of monkeys. We can also use words such as Barrel, Carload, Cartload. So here is another barrel of ‘Monkey’ songs.
“Porcelain Monkey” is a song by Warren Zevon This song is about Elvis Presley, specifically the decadence and swift decline of his later years. The title refers to a figurine in Elvis’ TV room at Graceland. Zevon saw his longtime songwriting partner Jorge Calderon’s postcard picture of the room and thought it would make a good starting point for the song. Zevon took a dim view of what he considered Elvis’ overrated stature in American music, but decided the story of Elvis’ decline would fit in well with the theme of the 2000 ‘Life’ll Kill Ya’ album.
“Proudest Monkey” is a song by the Dave Matthews Band, featured on the 1996 album ‘Crash’. “Proudest Monkey” has its roots in a live soundcheck done before the audience at a gig at Williams College in December 1993. The band arrived two hours late for the gig due to becoming lost on an alternate route they were forced to take when a snowstorm struck the area. As a result, the band jammed the music that would later become “Proudest Monkey” to test their equipment, with Matthews making up lyrics on the spot. This performance was ultimately labeled “Route 2” by tapers, after the road the band used to reach the gig.
“Shock the Monkey” is a song by English musician Peter Gabriel. It was released in September 1982 as the second single from his fourth self-titled album, issued in the US under the title Security. The song peaked at number 29 on the US Billboard chart and number one on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The song was Gabriel’s first Top 40 hit in the US. In the UK, the song charted at number 58. According to AllMusic, the song has a “relentlessly repeated hook” that “sounded nothing like anything else on the radio at the time”. Billboard called it a “mysterious but infectious track…which melds synthesizers, distinctive vocal and dance rhythms to fresh effect.”
“Too Much Monkey Business” is a song written and recorded by Chuck Berry, released by Chess Records in September 1956 as his fifth single. It was also released as the third track on his first solo LP, After School Sessions, in May 1957; and as an EP. The single reached number four on Billboard magazine’s Most Played in Juke Boxes chart, number 11 on the Most Played by Jockeys chart and number seven on the Top Sellers in Stores chart in 1956. “Too Much Monkey Business” was an influence on Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues”.
