Funky Monkey of a Private Press
- Listen to this song on youtube: Funky Monkey
- Listen to these 45s in a Spotify playlist here with other 45s from the blog (though note, spotify doesn’t have all / many of the songs featured on the site so some playlists may be incomplete or feature slightly different versions than the original 45s I’m referring to here.
- Download the songs by clicking the titles above
We’ve got an interesting little private press 45 here today. The obvious, screaming reference here is the Beastie Boys “Brass Monkey” and knowing their love for sampling you’d assume this is the source, though it’s not and the record actually has a much more unusual history that took some unraveling and at least has a cursory connection.
As always, there are still some mysteries to this record but we can put together a basic timeline of the two credited artists on the record, Freeman King and Murray Langston. Who were these two dudes and how did this funky 45 come into being?
Freeman King was a man who had his hand in a lot of different creative fields. After moving to LA from Mississippi he was a songwriter, started his own label Non-Stop and had a release of his own put out on Kent. During that time he was also an active comedian and at the suggestion of none other than Redd Foxx he teamed up with the Canadian-born comedian Murray Langston.
King and Murray were both physical comics and in 1972 were teamed up to perform on the newly created late night variety show “The Midnight Special” after a few episodes they were picked up by the Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour where they would remain for 3 years. It was during this year Funky Monkey was released and you can feel that almost game-showey funk that would be part of a musical sketch at the time.
Langston and King put out a full length LP the following year on Laff Records and then their careers took off into other wild directions. Langston started a nightclub that kickstarted the careers of Letterman (though by his own admission in interviews he wasn’t any good), Michael Keaton, Gallagher and more. After that Langston created the character that would come to define his career, The Unknown Comic. Low on cash after his club failed and embarrassed to appear on the Gong Show Langston literally put a bag on his head to conceal his despair. To his surprise it worked and the gimmick stuck.
King moved into a career in acting and appeared on TV shows such as “Starsky and Hutch” and “The Incredible Hulk.”
So that all sort of adds up but now, here comes the twist which of course brings more questions. The “Sadinoel Productions” (which is Leonidas backwards, a common trick, but no idea who that may be?) appears on another strikingly similar looking 45 for “Annie Green Springs” sung by Ben Taylor of Dolomite fame and the flip side is an instrumental credited to Arthur Wright.
Arthur Wright has an amazing history as studio musician and member of the excellent studio band Afrique and most importantly did most of the arrangements on song’s Freeman King wrote and arranged both of his solo 45′s. The playing on this 45 has a little bit of a stroll to it, mix in some fuzz guitar, a piano plunking around and a drummer working overtime for his session pay (and mixed too low in my opinion!) and you got something worth some repeat spins.
Clearly these are products of the same machinery, the Annie Green Springs record lacks BMI/Publishing information and has no credited writers while Freeman and King get the credit, even for the instrumental on their 45. The tie that binds is Brass Monkey is a cocktail and in the 70s was sold as a premixed drink most famously by The Heublein Co who also owned and produced the Annie Green Springs wine. Looking back at old issues of Ebony there are ads for Annie Green Springs from the mid 70′s featuring black couples dressed like Roberta Flack, Sly Stone and Fred Astaire. The Annie Green Springs 45 was given away as a promo and it’s safe to assume that the Brass Monkey 45 was the same.
This post is about the Funky Monkey 45, but here’s a link to the Annie Green Springs record for those who are curious (I can’t find anything on youtube or I’d just link).
On its lonesome, “Funky Monkey” is a cool 45 but add in its historical context and you have an interesting artifact with lots of pathways into an early-mid 70′s LA entertainment industry that connected a lot of strange dots in order to sell alcohol.
Hope you enjoy today’s record and if you know anything else, feel free to chime in!
-George / Snack Attack
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