It’s one of the great unsolved mysteries of rock and roll.
Years before the World Wide Web, “Mony Mony” somehow managed to generate a bona fide, nationwide meme. But where the heck did it come from?
You know the song. Everyone knows the song. It’s been a Top Ten hit three times over: once in its original form, the 1968 single by Tommy James and the Shondells that topped the U.K. Singles chart and made it to #3 in the United States…
…a second time when Billy Idol took it to #7 on the Billboard Dance chart in 1981…
…and again for Billy Idol in 1987, when his live version went all the way to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
And it was that last version that spawned the meme.
Now if you’re reading this from Europe, Australia, or anywhere else outside of North America, you’re probably scratching your head trying to figure out what I’m talking about.
But if you came of age in North America during the 1980s, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
Somehow, somewhen, somebody first uttered these immortal words after every verse line:
Hey! Hey what? Get laid, get fucked!”
Or something like that. That’s what we shouted in Philadelphia, but there are several regional variations of the first part of the chant across the U.S. and Canada. The second part is always the same, though.
The thing is: no one knows exactly how it started. Like, no one. Not even Billy Idol, who’s been asked about it at length:
All we know is that it started in 1987, and it’s continued ever since. By the time Billy Idol reissued “Mony Mony” in 2018 as a remix, he pretty much had no choice but to include the unofficial lyrics.
What does this have to do with Bruce? Nothing, really, I’m just fascinated by it. But I swear: if you listen intently during the half-dozen times he covered “Mony Mony” during the Working on a Dream Tour in 2009, you can definitely hear the crowd chanting.
I think so, at least. My brain has mentally filled in those lines for so long, I can’t even tell anymore if I really hear them or not.
I had to laugh, though, when Bruce released an official video of the very first time he ever covered it at one of his concerts, because the “weird part” he skips to is not at all what I would consider the weird part.
I wasn’t there that night, but I’m pretty sure I can guess why Bruce edited out all the verses.
Bonus: Bruce actually covered “Mony Mony” once prior to the Working on a Dream Tour, but you definitely can not hear the “get laid” chant during it. That’s because it was 1982, five years before the meme originated. The performance is notable anyway, though, because it was the very first song Bruce and Joe Grushecky ever performed together, at Big Man’s West way back in Joe’s Iron City Houserockers days. Take a listen below.
Mony Mony
First performed: July 17, 1982 (Red Bank, New Jersey)
Last performed: July 8, 2009 (Herning, Denmark)
