Bony Moronie

"Bony Moronie" is Larry Williams' third single, released in 1957. Williams' original peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #4 on the U.S. R&B chart.

Lyrical content

The singer claims that his eponymous girlfriend is "as skinny as a stick of macaroni." Similarly the lyrics of the Bill Haley song Skinny Minnie describes the girlfriend as being like "a fishing pole".

French and Spanish versions

Les Habits Jaunes made a French cover version entitled "Miss Boney Maronie" in 1965.

The song was translated into Spanish by Enrique Guzmán and Manny Martinez, who renamed it "Popotitos".

Originally released as a single in 1961 by Guzman's and Martinez's band Los Teen Tops, "Popotitos" was also covered by a wide range of Spanish-speaking artists such as Ricky Martin and Miguel Ríos. The song was recorded by Argentinian rock/pop group Serú Girán in 1982, which introduced "Popotitos" to younger generations, and made it a hit again across Latin America.

Beatles versions

The song has been covered many times. According to biographer Mark Lewisohn, The Beatles (first as The Quarrymen) regularly performed the song, from 1957 until 1961 with John Lennon on lead vocal, but there is no known recorded version. Lennon himself recorded it for his 1975 album, Rock 'n' Roll ("The Beatles Ultimate Recording Guide" by Allen J. Wiener, 1992, p. 136). Roy Young, who'd been asked to join The Beatles, recorded a single version in 1972 (liner notes CD set "Roy Young The Best of 50 Years"). Additionally three of Lennon's original Quarrymen cut a version during rehearsal in 1993 that came out on CD as The Quarry Men - The Rehearsal Tapes copyrighted and privately released in 2004 (only via website sales, now out of print) (http://johnozoroff.co.uk/whatsnew.htm#rehearsaltapes).