Monkey Gone to Heaven

In late 1988, Pixies had just signed to Elektra Records and were recording their second album at Downtown Recorders in Boston. "Monkey Gone to Heaven", written and sung by frontman Black Francis, came out of those November sessions and became the first single from Doolittle, released in the UK on March 27, 1989 and in the US a month later. Produced by Gil Norton, it reached number five on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart and spent three weeks on the UK chart.

Francis had carried the hook, "this monkey's gone to heaven," around long before the song existed. When he finally set lyrics to music, he rushed to lead guitarist Joey Santiago's apartment early in the morning to play it, laughing through the "If man is five" section. The words drew on Hebrew numerology, with man at five, the Devil at six and God at seven, a reference Francis admitted he never researched properly. The single's cover echoed this, showing the figures five, six and seven alongside a haloed monkey.

The song was the first Pixies recording to feature guest musicians. Norton, inspired after seeing bassist Kim Deal plucking a grand piano's strings, arranged a string session at Carriage House Studios in Stamford, Connecticut, a studio often used for B-movie scores. Cellist Arthur Fiacco arrived from an afternoon concert to find no written parts, so he composed one from riffs Francis showed him, and ended up performing all the cello parts himself after sending Ann Rorich home.