Songoftheday 8/30/15 - Turn it in you gotta toss and turn and feel all right...

"Mony Mony (Live)" - Billy Idol
from the album Vital Idol (1987) and Idol Songs (UK, 1988)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 12

Today's SOTD is by the king of pop-punk, Billy Idol, whose 1986 album Whiplash Smile had spun off three top-40 hits including his second top-tenner, his cover of "To Be A Lover". His next move was his first "hits" set, which included remixes of his previous hits. One of them is a cover of the Tommy James and the Shondells song "Mony Mony", which originally appeared on his first EP Don't Stop in 1981. Although the song missed the pop chart in America and England, it had a cult following, especially in the clubs...

Six years later, a live version of "Mony Mony" was released, and it ended up becoming his highest-charting hit in the States...

"Mony Mony" went all the way to the top of the American pop chart in November of 1987, knocking out Tiffany's cover of the Shondells' "I Think We're Alone Now". The live version also climbed to #27 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock radio chart (the original made it to #7 on the dance club chart in 1981). Internationally, the record made the top 10 in Australia, New Zealand, and his native Britain at #7.

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The original version of "Mony Mony" by Tommy James and the Shondells went to #3 in the US and #1 in the UK in 1968...

In 1980, the Vinyl Virgins had a top-30 club hit in America with a disco cover, while reggae group Amazulu went to #38 in the UK in 1987 with their take (neither has a video clip)...

Twenty years later, British rock vets Status Quo climbed to #48 with their own Mony Mony...

Lastly, here's Idol in 2001 live again...

Up tomorrow: Electropop duo are singing about impurities.