Song of the Day 2/8: Honey Cone, “One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show”

I didn’t watch Biden’s SOTU speech, but I saw plenty of still pictures of Marjorie Taylor Greene. They didn’t remind me of a clown — more like one of those Japanese macaques popularly known as snow monkeys. Maybe it was just the effect of the fur collar — as Jesus sorta said, you can’t hide your good taste under a bushel — but I got a definite “Bush vs. Chimp” vibe from the various facial contortions photographers captured.

Granted, Greene wasn’t the only monkey, but they still did not stop the show. Biden even turned them into part of the act, getting them to insist — contrary to recorded evidence — that they never called for cuts to Medicare and Social Security.

You know the expression about monkeys not stopping the show must be true because so many songwriters have used it as a title — at least six, according to Wikipedia, and that’s only counting the songs by artists who cut nationally distributed records. Like George Foreman’s kids, they’re all different but they all have the same name.

The first was by jump blues guitarist Stick McGhee in 1950.

Hank Ballard, Big Maybelle, Joe Tex and Little David Wilkins all recorded songs with that title; the last two reached the charts. The biggest hit of the bunch was the 1971 single by Honey Cone, an all-girl trio led by Edna Wright, Darlene Love’s sister. Their Latin-flavored soul number, co-written by General Johnson, lead singer of the Chairmen of the Board, reached No. 15 on the Hot 100.