I'm the Urban Spaceman
"I'm the Urban Spaceman" was the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band's most successful single, released in 1968. It reached #5 in the UK charts. This song was covered by Jake Hanney on his second single, renaming it to Urban Spaceman. The song was written by Neil Innes - who won an Ivor Novello Award in 1968 for the song - and produced by Paul McCartney and Gus Dudgeon under the pseudonym "Apollo C. Vermouth".[1][2] The B-side was written by Vivian Stanshall. A well-known staging of the song involves Innes performing solo while a female tap dancer performs an enthusiastic but apparently under-rehearsed routine around him. This skit originally appeared in a 1975 edition of Rutland Weekend Television, with Lyn Ashley as the dancer, and was more famously revived in the 1982 film Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl with Carol Cleveland taking over the role.
| "I'm the Urban Spaceman" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band | ||||
| from the album Tadpoles | ||||
| B-side | "The Canyons of Your Mind" (Stanshall) | |||
| Released | 11 October 1968 (UK) 18 December 1968 (US) | |||
| Recorded | March 1968 | |||
| Genre | Comedy rock, psychedelic pop | |||
| Length | 2:23 | |||
| Label | Liberty Records (UK) Imperial Records (US) | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Neil Innes | |||
| Producer(s) | Apollo C. Vermouth (alias of Paul McCartney) | |||
| The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band singles chronology | ||||
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Leeds indie rock band Cud performed an extremely fast version (1:07 long) for a 1989 Peel Session. The recording appears on their albums Elvis Belt and BB Cudn't C.
References
- "I'm the Urban Spaceman - release information". Jpgr.co.uk. Retrieved 2012-02-24.
- Castleman, Harry; Podrazik, Walter J. (1977). "1968 – And God Created Apple". All Together Now – The First Complete Beatles Discography 1961–1975 (Second ed.). New York: Ballantine Books. p. 68. ISBN 0-345-25680-8.