My Top 2000 Songs #1097: Big Fat Monkey's Hat

I'm kinda curious if anyone even clicks on this page. Because, ok, silly song title... and about as obscure as a song on this list can be. But if you're here, you're in for a treat! Because "Big Fat Monkey's Hat" is wonderful--joyous, quirky pop, a jangly earworm with accordion.

80s Boston indie rock greats Scruffy The Cat oddly omitted this from their short EP/LP discography; it showed up instead on a 1985 vinyl compilation put out by indie label Coyote Records called Luxury Condos Coming To Your Neighborhood Soon. It was a fantastic collection, including rarities from very early Yo La Tengo, Feelies-adjacent folk-janglers The Trypes (who later evolved into Speed The Plough, and another track that found its way onto this list), the dB's (with Matthew Sweet), an early Amy Rigby country band, and more. Sadly, though there was a brief moment in time when a CD reissue was available online (glad I was quick in snagging a copy), it's largely been all but impossible to find.

And although Scruffy included "Monkey's Hat" on a 2014 collection of rarities, it's a different, more stripped-down version (a demo, I believe), still fun but lacking that special spark of the Luxury Condos comp.

However, in putting this write-up together, I was overjoyed to find that Luxury Condos is streaming on Spotify, so now there's no excuse not to crank it up.

Demo version:

Luxury Condos: