The Monkey Song lyrics, as performed by Hoagy Carmichael in The Las Vegas Story
It’s a story, about a monkey and a king,
King Rebob and his dream.
He dreams about flowers, he dreams about a bird,
He also dreams about a monkey.
He dreams this monkey can play the drums,
[drummer drums]
That’s another monkey.
The reason the king has this dream – he’s broke.
He needs dough.
There’s a missionary …
Well, the monkey heard swing
Down to Hula Hula Ling
He got bit, he got bit, by the beat of it.
He hopped up on a hippo’s back
With a grin he went into his dance.
Singing (gibberish)
You stop! You ain’t exactly on the backbeat
With my feat. Then he shuffled up a rhythm
About the monkey goin’ with him
In a minute they were ballin’ the jack
In the sand.
So the monkey made the cocoanuts top, top, top
On an old drum that belonged to the voodoos.
By the middle of the week every native was speak-
ing ’bout the monkey and his medicine band.
He beat licks with the sticks to erectify the picks
Til his rhythm was the talk of all the Congo.
He had a canoe playing the kazoo
And a jug man rounded out the combo.
One day a missionary
With umbrella and canary
Came riding on a donkey through the jungle.
King Rebop shouted, “Hey, stop Pop,
I know a way we could make a bundle.”
So he told the missionary with umbrella and canary
About the monkey and the way they drummed.
But he added he’d had a little bit of bad luck,
And he’d like to sell the monkey to Frank Buck.
So, he said to the man with umbrella in his hand
“If the deal is according to Hoyle,
I’ll see what you got,
I’ll pay you a lot
If you promise not to boil me in oil!”
He finally went with the king
Down to Hula Hula Ling
To see the thing, and if he could make a buck on it.
But the monkey the king raved about didn’t know nothing at all!
It was just another monkey.
King Rebop then woke up, found out he’d been a-dreaming,
Enough said, ‘cuz the little missionary with the Bible and canary
Said the king, “Must’ve been somebody you et!”
So long boy.
Editor’s notes:
- This is about as good as I could get, listening to the song repeatedly. If anyone wants to correct me in the comments, feel free.
- Frank Buck was a famous circus entertainer, famous for bring back wild animals from around the world.