It was arranged by band leader Thelonious Monk, Jr. and written by songwriter L. Russell Brown and producer Sandy Linzer.

[1] It was T. S. Monk's best-selling song and only charting single on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 63.

[2] It also features lighthearted vocals, haunting scat riffs, and a backbeat constituted by brass, bongo, and hand-clapping.

[13] In a review of House of Music, Stereo Review magazine's Irv Cohn said "Bon Bon Vie" is an "interesting" song that proves "real musicians are at work in dance music in the post-disco era.

[14] Stephen Holden from The New York Times wrote that producer Sandy Linzer "has found for T.S.

Monk a flexible, melodic style that is halfway between Chic's disco and Dr. Buzzard's swing.

"[5] In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau praised "Bon Bon Vie" as "a rich song about aspiring to the rich life" and wrote, "I love not only the subtle Sandy Linzer lyric but also Thelonious Monk Jr.'s rough, high-humored vocal and incisive drumming, and its arrangement keeps giving up new pleasures.