It was sung by minstrels and sailors as early as 1898.
[2] The song was referred to in Life magazine in 1941 as a cadence of soft shoe tap dancing.
[3] The 1897 version has the following lyrics:[2] Other versions substituted "the old raccoon" (1914)[4] for "the little raccoon", while modern recordings use "the big baboon".
The Barney & Friends and the Captain Kangaroo versions changed other lyrics as well.
The song may be sung as a round with the last word "monkey, monkey" repeated until the song finishes or the group repeats.