One of the things I enjoy most about writing this blog is preserving the little family stories that might otherwise be forgotten. They are usually not the big events that make family history memorable. Instead, they are the small moments, inside jokes, and traditions that somehow become part of a family's shared language.
Our family has one of those. We call it Monkeys on the Roof.
While we were living in Florida between 1994 and 1998, we stopped at a ward member's garage sale and picked up the cassette version of the New Testament Seminary Video Soundtrack. It quickly became one of the cassette tapes that permanently lived in our family van. Whenever we drove to church or headed across town, there was a good chance that soundtrack was playing.
When we moved to Oklahoma in August 1998, the cassette came with us. During those years, we spent countless hours driving our green 1997 Dodge Grand Caravan. Somewhere along the way, Allyn decided that one section of Theme from "The Law of the Harvest" sounded like monkeys dancing on the roof of the van. I think it was the combination of the driving drumbeat and an instrument that makes a repeated "who, who, who" sound. Before long, we simply called it Monkeys on the Roof.
I don't remember exactly when the nickname started. I don't even remember hearing Allyn say it the first time. Like a lot of family traditions, it just seemed to happen naturally. Pretty soon, one of the kids would ask us to play "Monkeys on the Roof," and everyone knew exactly which song they meant.
In 2010, we bought our tan van. It didn't have a cassette player, so our collection of cassette tapes quietly disappeared from family road trips. We gradually replaced them with CDs and later with digital music. Without really noticing it, Monkeys on the Roof disappeared too.
Fast forward to the summer of 2026.
Addison was staying with Jamie and Deb while serving as Josie's nanny. One day Jamie mentioned the legend of Monkeys on the Roof. Addi looked puzzled and admitted that she had never heard the story before. Since she was born after the cassette era had ended, that really wasn't surprising.
Jamie found the full soundtrack on YouTube and shared it with our Fam Bam group chat, but she couldn't remember which song was actually Monkeys on the Roof. She asked everyone for help identifying it.
I found the official soundtrack playlist on the Church website and started playing the songs one by one. As soon as Theme from "The Law of the Harvest" began, Annette immediately said, "That's Monkeys on the Roof."
I shared it with the group chat, and almost immediately, everyone started adding their own memories.
Jamie remembered listening to the cassette while driving to and from church in Oklahoma and recalled that Allyn had decided the drums sounded like monkeys on the roof of the van.
Allyn replied, "Man, Monkeys on the Roof was a banger." Then, after listening to the song again, she confirmed, "Yes, this is it because there is an instrument that sounds like monkeys. This brings back so many memories."
Tanner especially remembers, "This song was my jam. I would beg and beg Mom to play it. She would struggle to figure out how far forward or backward to wind the cassette tape to get it. Jamie and I would argue over which 'track' it was. They were listed on the back of the cassette, and Mom would always accidentally fast-forward too far."
SIDE NOTE: If you've only grown up with CDs or streaming music, finding a particular song on a cassette tape took a little patience. There were no track buttons or search features. You had to fast-forward or rewind the tape and guess where the song began. If you guessed wrong, you rewound or fast-forwarded again and tried another spot. Tanner's memory reminded me just how often "Monkeys on the Roof" was requested during those Oklahoma years.
It's funny how something as simple as a song can preserve a family memory for nearly thirty years. None of us remember the exact day that Monkeys on the Roof was born. We just know that the moment those familiar drums started playing again, we were all back in that green Dodge Grand Caravan, driving down an Oklahoma road with imaginary monkeys dancing on the roof.
If you're curious, here's the complete soundtrack that rode around with our family for years.
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