Monkey Gone to Heaven

"Monkey Gone to Heaven"
Single by Pixies
from the album Doolittle
A-side	"Monkey Gone to Heaven"
B-side	"Manta Ray" "Weird at My School" "Dancing the Manta Ray"
Released	March 20, 1989 (1989-03-20) Vinyl record (7", 12"), Compact Disc
Recorded	November 1988 at Downtown Recorders, Boston, Massachusetts, United States Strings recorded on December 4, 1988, at Carriage House Studios, Stamford, Connecticut, United States
Genre	Grunge[1]
Length	2:56
Label	Elektra
Songwriter(s)	Black Francis
Producer(s)	Gil Norton
Pixies singles chronology
"Gigantic" (1988) "Monkey Gone to Heaven" (1989) "Here Comes Your Man" (1989)

"Monkey Gone to Heaven" is a song by the American alternative rock band Pixies. Recorded in November 1988 during the sessions for the band's 1989 album Doolittle, it was released as a single in March, and included as the seventh track on the album when it was released a month later in April. The song was written and sung by frontman Black Francis and was produced by Gil Norton. Referencing environmentalism and biblical numerology, the song's lyrics mirrored themes that were explored in Doolittle. "Monkey Gone to Heaven" was the first Pixies song to feature guest musicians: two cellists, Arthur Fiacco and Ann Rorich, and two violinists, Karen Karlsrud and Corine Metter.

The band had signed to Elektra Records at the end of 1988,^[2] so the "Monkey Gone to Heaven" single was their first American and major label release. It was critically well-received; Rolling Stone's David Fricke said "Monkey Gone to Heaven" was "a corrosive, compelling meditation on God and garbage."^[3] In the years since its release, the song has received several accolades from music publications.