"The Funky Gibbon" is a

novelty song A novelty song is a type of song built upon some form of novel concept, such as a gimmick, a piece of humor, or a sample of popular culture. Novelty songs partially overlap with comedy songs, which are more explicitly based on humor, and w ...

Bill Oddie William Edgar Oddie (born 7 July 1941) is an English actor, artist, birder, comedian, conservationist, musician, songwriter, television presenter and writer. He was a member of comedy trio The Goodies. A birder since his childhood in Quinton ...

and recorded by

The Goodies The Goodies were a trio of British comedians: Tim Brooke-Taylor (17 July 1940 – 12 April 2020), Graeme Garden (b. 18 February 1943) and Bill Oddie (b. 7 July 1941). The trio created, wrote for and performed in their The Goodies (TV series), ...

. It was arranged by Tom Parker ("with interference from Bill Oddie") with the musical backing provided by members of the R&B band Gonzalez and released as a single in February 1975. The

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

was "Sick-Man Blues", which had been written by Oddie for use in the radio series ''

I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again ''I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again'' (often abbreviated as ''ISIRTA'') was a BBC radio comedy programme that was developed from the 1964 University of Cambridge, Cambridge University Footlights revue, ''Cambridge Circus (comedy), Cambridge Circus ...

''. It was the most successful single for The Goodies. It entered the UK Singles Chart on 15 March 1975 at no. 37, remaining in the chart for 10 weeks and peaking at no. 4. It also received considerable airplay in the United States on ''The Dr. Demento radio show'' and reached no. 79 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 1976. The Funky Gibbon was released with multiple alternative codas at the end of the song including " Tie a Yellow Gibbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" plus " And for Me Some Scarlet Gibbons, Scarlet Gibbons for My Hair" which were randomly heard on the double grooved single; as well as " He Promised to Buy Me a Bunch of Blue Gibbons to Tie Up My Bonny Brown ...". The Goodies performed the song live numerous times, including on ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British record chart television programme, made by the BBC and broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most of its histo ...

'' on 20 March 1975 and in '' The Goodies – Almost Live'' in 1976. The b-side, "Sick-Man Blues", parodied the recent hit " Up in a Puff of Smoke" by former Pickettywitch singer Polly Brown. "The Funky Gibbon" was re-released in November 2010 to raise funds for the International Primate Protection League's "Save the Gibbon" appeal.

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Funky Gibbon 1975 songs 1975 singles Novelty songs Songs written by Bill Oddie