Written by: Williams
Recorded: October-December 1973
Producers: John Lennon, Phil Spector
Released: 21 February 1975 (UK), 17 February 1975 (US)
John Lennon: vocals, electric guitar
Phil Spector: electric guitar, piano
Jesse Ed Davis, Steve Cropper, Art Munson, William Perry, Louis Shelton, Dale Anderson, Larry Carlton, David Cohen, Jose Feliciano: guitar
Ray Neapolitan, Bob Glaub, Thomas Hensley: bass guitar
Jeff Barry, Andy Thomas, Michael Wofford, Michael Lang, Barry Mann, Michael Melvoin: piano
Mac Rebennack, Michael Omartian, Leon Russell: keyboards
William Perkins, Robert Hardaway: woodwind
Nino Tempo: saxophone, keyboards
Bobby Keys, Jim Horn, Plas Johnson, Ronald Langinger, Donald Menza, Gene Cipriano: saxophone
Anthony Terran, Conte Candoli, Chuck Findley: trumpet
Julian Matlock: clarinet
Joseph Kelson: horn
Jim Keltner, Hal Blaine, Frank Capp, Jim Gordon: drums
Gary Coleman, Alan Estes, Steven Forman, Terry Gibbs: percussion
Available on:
Rock 'N' Roll
John Lennon recorded a version of Larry Williams' 1957 hit Bony Moronie in 1973, and it was released two years later on his Rock 'N' Roll album.
Bony Moronie was Larry Williams' third single. It sold a million copies in the United States, and reached number 14 in the charts; in Britain it peaked at number 12.
The song was one of four songs on Lennon's Rock 'N' Roll album produced by Phil Spector. As with the other cuts, it was slowed from the original tempo and given the Wall of Sound treatment.
Bony Moronie was one of the very earliest songs – along with Be-Bop-A-Lula – and I remember singing it the only time my mother saw me perform before she died. So I was hot on Bony Moronie. That is one of the reasons. Also, I liked Larry Williams, who recorded it.
In the studio a junior engineer mistakenly stretched a tape of Bony Moronie. Thankfully this was a rough mix and not the multi-track, and the song was able to be mastered and released.
