- Criss Cross is a Thelonious Monk composition that appears on the 1963 Columbia album Criss-Cross.
- The album was released in August 1963 and recorded from November 1962 to March 1963; it features the Thelonious Monk Quartet with Monk on piano, Charlie Rouse on tenor, John Ore on bass, and Frankie Dunlop on drums.
- The tracks are re-recorded Monk originals for Columbia, during and after the Monk's Dream sessions, by a well rehearsed group that had played together for about four years.
- The title track, Criss Cross, runs about 4 minutes and 52 seconds and sits among other tunes such as Hackensack, Tea for Two, Eronel, Rhythm-A-Ning, and Don’t Blame Me (Retake 1).
- Eronel is a fast paced bop piece, and Crepuscule with Nellie is a piece Monk wrote for his wife; CD reissues add Pannonica (Take 2) named for Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter, a friend and patron who wrote the liner notes.
- The Criss-Cross period helped raise Monk’s profile, culminating in a Time magazine cover in February 1964; the album is regarded as strong 1960s studio work in the jazz genre.
