Robbed Hit of the Week 5/26/15 - the Beastie Boys' "Brass Monkey"...

"Brass Monkey" - Beastie Boys
from the album Licensed To Ill (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #48

This week's "robbed hit" comes from the New York bratty-rap trio Beastie Boys, whose novelty rock-rap mashup "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)" landed them a surprise top-10 pop hit as well as a crazy successful #1 album in Licensed To Ill. Instead of pushing out another ready-friendly single though, the Boys put out the street-silly "Brass Monkey". Named for a cocktail, the song had no form recognizable in pop but stayed metrically true to the hip hop they were enamored with...

"Brass Monkey" nearly got them another top-40 hit, landing below that level in April of 1987. The single also nicked the R&B chart in Billboard at #83.