"The Laughing Gnome" | ||||
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![]() Cover of the 1967 Belgian single | ||||
Single by David Bowie | ||||
B-side | "The Gospel According to Tony Day" | |||
Released | 14 April 1967 | |||
Recorded | 26 January, 7 and 10 February, 8 March 1967 | |||
Studio | Decca (London) | |||
Genre | Novelty[1][2] | |||
Length | 3:03 | |||
Label | Deram | |||
Songwriter(s) | David Bowie | |||
Producer(s) | Mike Vernon | |||
David Bowie singles chronology | ||||
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"The Laughing Gnome" is a song by the English singer David Bowie, released as a single on 14 April 1967. A pastiche of songs by one of Bowie's early influences, Anthony Newley, it was originally released as a novelty single on Deram Records in 1967. The track consists of Bowie meeting and conversing with a gnome, whose sped-up voice (created by Bowie and studio engineer Gus Dudgeon) delivers several puns on the word "gnome".[3] At the time, "The Laughing Gnome" failed to provide Bowie with a chart placing, but on its re-release in 1973 it reached number six on the British charts[4] and number three in New Zealand.[5]
The Laughing Gnome" is a throwaway novelty number that includes sped-up vocals...