Monkey Business

Would that be the version by Fats Domino, Michael Jackson or Skid Row? If it was Too Much Monkey Business, we'd have to choose between The Beatles, Chuck Berry, The Hollies, The Kinks and The Cramps . I used to be in the monkey business, studying animal behavior. After reading Walking With the Great Apes: Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Birute Galdikas by Sy Montgomery in college, I was sold on studying primates and twisted every special project to learn more about monkeys and apes. I even studied American Sign Language (ASL) in the hopes of interacting with chimpanzees trained in ASL. I haven't given up my love for these amazing creatures, but my deeper forays into animal studies led me into a field that supports our keeping wild creatures wild.

That personal history aside, I've always wanted to make a compilation CD of songs about monkeys or with monkeys in them. I was shocked by how many songs I was able to find with just a simple search - 111! No fewer than than 10 songs just called Monkey or The Monkey; several about Monkey Business; the obligatory monkey phrases such as Monkey Wrench and Monkey Bars; monkey body parts: Monkey Butt and Monkey Back; all kinds of monkeys: Dirty Monkey, Toilet Monkey, Spider Monkey, New Monkey, Cheeky Monkey, Little Monkey, Steel Monkey, Musical Monkey, Brass Monkey; and all kinds of things to do to or with monkeys: Spank the Monkey, Shake Your Monkey, Punish the Monkey, Shock Dat Monkey and my favorite, Let Da Monkey Out!

Hard to choose, but my CD would probably go something like this (some picked just because I like the name or the band):
Dial Zero Be No Monkey
George Michael Monkey
Eminem Monkey See, Monkey Do
Beastie Boys Brass Monkey
Dave Matthews Band Proudest Monkey
Elvis Costello Monkey To Man
Goldie Lookin' Chain Monkey Love
Michael Jackson Monkey Business
Smokey Robinson Mickeys Monkey
The Rolling Stones MONKEY MAN
Aerosmith Monkey On My Back
The Beatles Too Much Monkey Business
Traveling Wilburys Tweeter And The Monkey Man
Gorillaz Fire Coming Out Of A Monkey's Head
Sprout Why Don't You Wear What That Monkey Wears?
The Beatles Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey
The Monkeys Hey, Hey, We’re the Monkees