Most People Forget This 1981 Billy Idol Hit Was Actually a Cover

In 1981, Billy Idol released “Mony Mony”. One of his biggest hits, “Mony Mony” appears on his debut EP, Don’t Stop. Written by  Tommy James, Bobby Bloom, Ritchie Cordell, and Bo Gentry, most people don’t know that Idol’s version is actually a cover. Before the rocker released “Mony Mony”, the song was released by Tommy James and the Shondells. It is the title track of their fifth studio album, and one of their many Top 5 singles.

“Mony Mony” begins with, “Here she come now sayin’, ‘Mony, Mony’ / Shoot ’em down, turn around, come on, Mony / Hey, she give me love, and I feel all right now / Yeah, you gotta toss and turn / And feel all right, yeah, I feel all right / I said, yeah (Yeah), yeah (Yeah) / Yeah (Yeah), yeah (Yeah), yeah (Yeah, yeah).“

When Idol first released “Mony Mony”, it was not a big hit on the radio. But in 1987, Idol released a live version of the song, which became his first No. 1 single in the United States. The live version appears on Idol’s Vital Idol record. “Mony Mony” is also Idol’s only song to reach the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

The Meaning Behind “Mony Mony”

When James wrote “Mony Mony” initially, he didn’t intend for it to be a song with catchy lyrics.

“Originally, we did the track without a song,” he tells Songfacts. “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.”

The meaning of “Mony Mony” is something people once spent a long time trying to decipher. In actuality, there really isn’t much significance to the title. Instead, James says they later had most of the lyrics, except for the hook of the song.

“Ritchie Cordell, my songwriting partner and I, are up in my apartment up at 888 Eighth Avenue in New York,” James recounts. “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.”

Photo by Ross Marino/Getty Images

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