♫ Mony, Mony ♫

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, History, music

I owe the idea for tonight’s music post to rawgod, who commented on yesterdays Dancing Queen that this song was more his idea of music that gets his toes tapping and makes him want to get up and dance!  As soon as I began listening to the link he sent, I recognized the song, though I hadn’t heard it in probably 20 years!  And it definitely does have the rhythm that sets the old toes to tapping!

SongFacts did an interview with Tommy James about this song and if you’re interested, you can read it in its entirety, but meanwhile here’s a brief snippet …

“Originally, we did the track without a song. And the idea was to create a party rock record; in 1968 that was pretty much of a throwback to the early ’60s. Nobody was making party rock records really in 1968, those big-drum-California-sun-what-I-sing-money-type songs. And so I wanted to do a party rock record.

And we went in the studio, and we pasted this thing together out of drums here, and a guitar riff here. It was called sound surgery, and we finally put it together in probably a month. We had most of the words to the song, but we still had no title. And it’s just driving us nuts, because we’re looking for like a ‘Sloopy’ or some crazy name – it had to be a two-syllable girl’s name that was memorable and silly and kind of stupid sounding. So we knew what kind of a word we had, it’s just that everything we came up with sounded so bad. So Ritchie Cordell, my songwriting partner and I, are up in my apartment up at 888 Eighth Avenue in New York. And finally we get disgusted, we throw our guitars down, we go out on the terrace, we light up a cigarette, and we look up into the sky. And the first thing our eyes fall on is the Mutual of New York Insurance Company. M-O-N-Y. True story. With a dollar sign in the middle of the O, and it gave you the time and the temperature.”

This went to #1 in the UK and #3 in the U.S.  Billy Idol did a version that became a #1 hit in the U.S. in 1987 and I am including it here, despite the fact that I do not like it, not one bit!  I much prefer Tommy James and the Shondell’s original!  Idols has too many effects that detract and distract from the music, but such was his way I suppose.

Mony Mony
Tommy James & The Shondells/Billy Idol
Here she come down, says ‘Mony, Mony’
Well, shoot ’em down, turn around, come home, honey
Hey! She gimme love an’ I feel alright now
Everybody!
You got me tossin’ turnin’ in the night, and I feel alright
Let me feel alright

I say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Well you make me feel Mony, Mony
So! Mony, Mony
Good! Mony, Mony
Yeah! Mony, Mony
So good! Mony, Mony
Oh, yeah! Mony, Mony
Come on! Mony, Mony

All right, baby! Mony, Mony

Say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Break ‘dis, shake it, Mony, Mony
Shot gun, get it done, come on, Mony
Don’t stop cookin’, it feels so good, yeah
Hey! Well don’t stop now, hey, come on Mony
Well come on, Mony

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Well you make me feel Mony, Mony
So! Mony, Mony
Good! Mony, Mony
Yeah! Mony, Mony
Alright! Mony, Mony
Come on! Mony Mony
So good! Mony Mony

All right
I say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, ahhhhhhh

Oo, I love ya Mony, Mo, Mo, Mony
Oo, I love ya Mony, Mo, Mo, Mony
Oo, I love ya Mony, Mo, Mo, Mony
Oo, I love ya Mony, Mo, Mo, Mony

I say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah

Come on!
Come on!
Come on!

Everybody
Alright, alright
Come on!

22 thoughts on “♫ Mony, Mony ♫”

  1. One of the classic all-time great feel-good, toe-tapping, get up and dance songs.
    Personal story here. You may or may not have heard of John Peel a british DJ who gained fame and much love for playing little known bands and credited with aiding more than a few to fame.
    Anyway he briefly hosted a late-night music show on TV, and one evening took some time out to mock this song; it wasn’t the first time either ‘Laugh At Me’ by Sonny Bonon got similar disapproval.
    ‘Sorry John,’ says I to myself ‘You are a music snob,’
    And the next week went out a bought Tommy James and the Shondell’s Greatest Hits LP, and played it more than my Velvet Underground or Can (weirdly rock) or Amon Duul II (never mind) albums.
    ‘Mony, Mony’ is still a great song, always will be. (fist pump!)

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Don’t know if you’re aware of the chorus added to the Billy Idol version about getting laid and getting drunk that dancers shouted out. “Here she come down, says ‘Mony, Mony’” DANCERS: “Get laid, get drunk.” Etc. Hugs and cheers, M

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  5. A slice of my youth! This song was inescapable here for a couple of months in summer ‘68. It had loads of airplay but took nine weeks to climb up to #1 in early August, spent two weeks there, was knocked off for a week by ‘Fire’ by the Crazy World of Arthur Brown (you have to play that one!), went back to the top for another week and was pushed off the top by the Beach Boys, with ‘Do It Again.’ Transistor radios everywhere and we had so much fun!

    As for Billy Idol – meh.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Awesome! I’m happy to have brought back memories of a time long ago 😉 I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of “Fire” or the Crazy World of Arthur Brown before, but I promise I will post it … unless I just hate it 😉 Oh yes … transistor radios! Haven’t thought of those in ages! The great-grandfather of the iPod!

      I agree about Idol … he ain’t my idol

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