Songfacts®:

• There was a popular song in 1966 called "The Ballad Of The Green Berets" that honored American special forces. And in 1967 there was the movie The Dirty Dozen, about another team of operatives. Well, in this song, Peter Case makes up a completely different fighting squad, the Wonderful 99. They get sent to repair a botched mission, and it doesn't go well - all 99 end up dead, honored with yellow ribbons. It shouldn't be surprising that their mission failed - they prepared for it in a Motel 6 watching Top Gun on video.
• Peter Case wrote this song with John Prine, who shares his taste for tall tales. Case was playing The Bluebird in Nashville when Prine came to see him perform. After, they went to John's place and wrote some songs. One of them, "Space Monkey," went to Prine, who included it in his live sets. Another was "Wonderful 99," which Case recorded.
  
  "Dude had these ideas for songs that were funny just themselves - just the ideas," Case told Songfacts. "When we wrote 'Wonderful 99,' he goes, 'Let's write a song set in Bismarck about imaginary heroes.'
  
  He was washing the dishes. We were right by the sink and he just looked over at me and said, 'Let's write a song.' We just sat down and wrote it. That was crazy. We had a lot of laughs.
• Case included "Wonderful 99" on his solo album Six-Pack Of Love, produced by Mitchell Froom. It was his last album with Geffen Records, which he moved to after breaking up his band The Plimsouls.