Who wrote this song?

Question

"Had a little monkey
Took him to the country
Fed him on shortening bread.
Along cam a choo choo
Knocked him coo coo
Now my monkey's dead."

I know Marilyn Manson did it a while back, but I know that he didn't write it.

Answer 1

Well I know this girl that thought that her mom wrote it while she was in a mental institution. Now there's a story-she was in a mental hospital in Vietnam and secretly shipped back to America because she was so crazy that everyone was afraid of her. So they ended up putting her into a hospital in Philly--cause EVERYONE there is crazy, so nobody noticed her being a bit off of the wall. So here she is, in this mental ward in downtown Philly, singing little dittys to keep herself amused. Another patient there heard her singing this song over and over and became convinced that he was a monkey. He would jump from table to table making monkey sounds that monkeys normally make and scratching at invisible fleas. Everytime that she would get to the part about being dead, he would flop down onto the floor and his heart would stop! SERIOUSLY! The medics had to revive him. The hospital admin finally realized that it was my friend's mom that was basically killing him over and over again. They charged her for attempted murder and she went to trial but the jury dismissed it for lack of evidence. After the trial, the mom started to feel more like a normal person and the hospital was more than happy to let her go instead of 'killing' their patients, so she wandered out in the streets for awhile before hooking up with a up and coming songwriter in Nashville. He thought that she hung the moon and they started singing together in little nightclubs. It was during one of their acts that they started singing this song, the first time that the public was really getting to hear it (outside of the hospital and the courtroom) and it instantly became a local hit. The duo broke up after a year or so together and my friend's mom got a job as a school lunch lady where she would serenade the kids as she served them corn dogs. She is now running for mayor of El Dorado, Kansas and will deny any of this story if asked. True story.

Answer 2

Charles Manson includes this in Mechanical Man.


Also known as a jump rope rhyme...

The Little Monkey Verses

I had a little monkey,
His name was Jim.
Put him in the bathtub
To see if he could swim.
He drank up all the water
He ate up all the soap,
Now my little monkey
Knows how to float.

I had a little monkey,
His name was Tom.
He jumped up
And he jumped down.
He jumped so high
He reached the sky,
Now my little monkey
Knows how to fly.

I had a little monkey,
His name was Jake.
I took him to the garden
To teach him how to rake.
He used a cultivator
To plant seeds in a row,
Then my little monkey,
Up and stubbed his toe.

I had a little monkey,
His name was Red.
I took him to the kitchen
To feed him gingerbread.
He emptied all the cupboards
He ate the kitchen table,
Now my little monkey
Eats if he is able.

I had a little monkey,
Sent him to the country.
Fed him on gingerbread
He fell out the window (run out)
He broke his little finger.
Came back in again (run back in),
Along came a choo-choo
Knocked him coo-coo
Sent my little monkey to bed.

I had a little monkey,
Took him for a stroll.
He fell in a gutter
He rolled in a hole.
He ran up an elevator
He fell down the stairs,
Now my little monkey
Is laid up for repairs.

I had a little monkey,
I put him in a cage.
He pulled on the wire
He flew into a rage.
I opened the door
To let him out,
Then my little monkey
Fell on his snout.

I had a little monkey,
His name was Joe.
I put him in an airplane
To see if it would go.
He turned on the engine
It went up with a scoot,
Now my little monkey
Can use a parachute.

Answer 3

Charles Manson (yes the serial killer)
Album is "Lie" and the song "Mechanical Man".

Your lyrics are wrong by the way. The song goes:
I had a little monkey
And I sent him to the country
And I fed him ginger bread
Along came a choo choo
And knocked my monkey koo koo
And now my monkey’s dead.

The song came from a much older country song that goes:
I had a little monkey,
I took him to the country,
I fed him shortening bread.
He ran up a flag pole,
I shot him in the asshole,
Now my monkey’s dead.

I'm partial to Charles's version myself.

Answer 4

Manson wrote the song My Monkey, which lifts the passage you quoted from a Charles Manson song.

Answer 5

The Spooky Kids performed that song. They were signed to Nothing/Interscope Records. The song is titled: "My Monkey". It was written by Charles Manson & David Berkowitz (the Son of Sam serial killer)

Answer 6

I grew up with my grandmother singing this to me as a child in the early 60s, and since Marilyn Manson is 47 I don t believe he wrote the original song.

Answer 7

Michael Jackson

Answer 8

From everything I've read, I believe Marilyn Manson wrote the song. No one else seems to want to claim it. :)

Answer 9

Marilyn Manson My Monkey Lyrics

Answer 10

I am 63 years old and my Grandmother taught me this song when I was five. I do not know who wrote it but Marlyn Manson did not.