"Monkey Magic" is the 8th single by Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 band Godiego

Godiego

is a popular band from Japan, consisting of the Mickie Yoshino, Yukihide Takekawa, Takami Asano, Steve Fox, and Tommy Snyder...

. It is internationally known as the opening theme for the 1978 television series Saiyūki, known in the west as Monkey

Monkey (TV series)

Monkey is the dubbed English language version of the Japanese television series , based on the classic sixteenth century Chinese novel Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en. It was originally produced by Nippon Television and International Television Films in association with NHK.The series ran for...

. The song peaked at #2 on the Oricon

Oricon

, established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc...

 Charts and #4 on The Best Ten.

Track list

Japanese single track listing

1. "Monkey Magic"
2. "A Fool"

British single track listing

1. "Monkey Magic"
2. "Gandhara"

   The first verse is Japanese, the second verse is English

3. "Thank You, Baby"

Australian single track listing

1. "The Birth of the Odyssey ~ Monkey Magic"
2. "Gandhara"

Cover versions

A cover version of "Monkey Magic" by Orange Range

Orange Range

is a 5-member Okinawan alternative rock band, based in Okinawa, Japan. Formed in 2001, the band began with Spice Music and later signed with Sony Music Japan's gr8! records division in 2003. The group left gr8! records in 2010 to start their own label, Super Echo....

 was featured in the Nintendo DS video game, Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2

Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2

is a rhythm video game developed by iNiS and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld video game console. It is the third game to use its gameplay, and is the sequel to Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan while incorporating many of the improvements in gameplay made in Elite Beat Agents...

. Animetal

Animetal

was a Japanese novelty heavy metal band who specialized in metal covers of theme songs from classic and modern Japanese anime and tokusatsu television series....

 made their version on Animetal Marathon VII

Animetal Marathon VII

is a 2005 album by the Japanese heavy metal band Animetal. This album focuses on the ending themes of various tokusatsu shows. The first three songs on the album comprise the openings of the newest Super Sentai series at the time of the album's recording....

 album. Another cover was featured in Lucky Star. Godiego released their own self cover on the single "Monkey Magic 2006". Also AAA

AAA

AAA, or Triple-A, may be a three-letter acronym or may just mean something that is high-quality, premier, or excellent.As a proper noun, Aaa is found only in the species name Cavaticovelia aaa , an insect from Hawaii....

 made one for their cover album "CCC-CHALLENGE COVER COLLECTION-". The Japanese-Canadian pop group Monkey Majik

Monkey Majik

Monkey Majik is a Japanese pop-rock band formed in 2000, consisting of two Canadian brothers and two Japanese members .- Profile :...

 (which took their name from the song) released a new cover version in 2007. Korean pop singer E-Paksa performed a cover for a compilation of his unique variety of "ponchak" music, which was one featured on the Korean dance simulation game Pump it Up

Pump It Up

Pump It Up, commonly abbreviated as PIU or shortened to just Pump, is a music video game series currently developed by Nexcade and published by Andamiro, a Korean arcade game producer. The game is typically played on a dance pad with five arrow panels: up-left, up-right, bottom-left, bottom-right,...

.
A cover of "Monkey Magic" was recorded by the American dance rock band Cobra Starship

Cobra Starship

Cobra Starship is an American synthpop band created by former Midtown bassist and lead vocalist Gabe Saporta in 2003 in New York City, New York...

 and released on the iTunes Germany version of their 2009 hit album Hot Mess

Hot Mess

Hot Mess is the third studio album by American dance rock band Cobra Starship, released through Fueled by Ramen and Decaydance Records on August 11, 2009. The album is the follow-up to 2007's ¡Viva la Cobra!...

.