"I'm the Urban Spaceman" was the

Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (also known as The Bonzo Dog Band or The Bonzos) was created by a group of British art-school students in the 1960s. Combining elements of music hall, trad jazz and psychedelia with surreal humour and avant-garde art, ...

's most successful single, released in 1968. It reached #5 in the UK charts. The song was written by

Neil Innes Neil James Innes (; 9 December 1944 – 29 December 2019) was an English writer, comedian and musician. He first came to prominence in the pioneering comedy rock group Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later became a frequent collaborator with the Mon ...

—who won an

Ivor Novello Award The Ivor Novello Awards, named after the entertainer Ivor Novello, are awards for songwriting and composing. They have been presented annually in London by the Ivors Academy (formerly the BASCA) since 1956, and over 1,000 statuettes have been a ...

in 1968 for the song—and produced by

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

under the pseudonym "Apollo C. Vermouth". The B-side was written by

Vivian Stanshall Vivian Stanshall (born Victor Anthony Stanshall; 21 March 1943 – 5 March 1995) was an English singer-songwriter, musician, author, poet and wit, best known for his work with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, for his exploration of the British upper ...

. A well-known staging of the song involves Innes performing solo while a female

tap dance Tap dance is a form of dance characterized by using the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion. Two major variations on tap dance exist: rhythm (jazz) tap and Broadway tap. Broadway tap focuses on dance; it is widely perfo ...

r performs an enthusiastic but apparently under-rehearsed routine around him. This skit originally appeared in a 1975 edition of ''

Rutland Weekend Television ''Rutland Weekend Television'' (''RWT'') was a television sketch show on BBC2, written by Eric Idle with music by Neil Innes. Two series were broadcast, the first consisting of six episodes in 1975, and the second series of seven episodes in ...

'', with

Lyn Ashley Lyn Ashley (born Lynette Rumble; 18 March 1940) is an Australian actress who worked in the United Kingdom on television during the 1960s. Early life Ashley was born Lynette Rumble in Townsville, Queensland, on 18 March 1940. She is the daughte ...

as the dancer, and was more famously revived in the 1982 film ''

Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl ''Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl'' is a 1982 British concert comedy film directed by Terry Hughes (with the film segments by Ian MacNaughton) and starring the Monty Python comedy troupe (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, E ...

'' with

Carol Cleveland Carol Cleveland (born 13 January 1942) is a British-American actress and comedian, particularly known for her work with Monty Python. Early life Born in East Sheen, London, she moved to the United States with her mother and U.S. Air Force step ...

taking over the role. Leeds indie rock band

Cud Cud is a portion of food that returns from a ruminant's stomach to the mouth to be chewed for the second time. More precisely, it is a bolus of semi-degraded food regurgitated from the reticulorumen of a ruminant. Cud is produced during the phy ...

performed an extremely fast version (1:07 long) for a 1989

Peel Session John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...

. The recording appears on their albums ''

Elvis Belt ''Elvis Belt'' is an album of selected early singles, EPs and Peel Sessions released by the Leeds-based indie rock band Cud in 1990 through Imaginary Records Imaginary Records was an independent record label based in Heywood, Greater Mancheste ...

'' and ''BB Cudn't C''.

References

External links

Basic release information at Discogs.com
{{authority control Songs about fictional male characters 1968 singles Novelty songs Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band songs Songs written by Neil Innes Song recordings produced by Paul McCartney Liberty Records singles Imperial Records singles 1968 songs