The David Bowie Song He Wrote as a Joke That Somehow Hit the Top 10 on the Charts

Published Mar 3, 2026, 3:30 PM EST

Dyah (pronounced Dee-yah) is a Senior Author at Collider, responsible for both writing and transcription duties. She joined the website in 2022 as a Resource Writer before stepping into her current role in April 2023. As a Senior Author, she writes Features and Lists covering TV, music, and movies, making her a true Jill of all trades. In addition to her writing, Dyah also serves as an interview transcriber, primarily for events such as San Diego Comic-Con, the Toronto International Film Festival, and the Sundance Film Festival.

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It would make sense why Bowie's discography is a pastiche of shifting moods, genres, and ideologies. However, early in the singer's career, Bowie had yet to fully determine what he wanted his sound to be. In one of his experiments as an up-and-coming songwriter, Bowie created a track so spectacularly corny and unbelievably silly that its very absurdity serves as a testament to the singer's fearlessness of being uncool — even when the world would later regard him otherwise.

Before 'Space Oddity', David Bowie Got Wacky with "The Laughing Gnome"

On 14, April 1967, Bowie released the novelty track "The Laughing Gnome," approximately two months before his self-titled debut album was issued. Set to a vaudeville, almost Sgt. Pepper-like tune, the song follows an imaginary narrator going about his day normally, only to discover a little gnome following him from behind. Not long after, the gnome "trotted" back to the narrator's house, "chucking away, laughing all day." Instead of swatting the gnome away from his premises, the narrator treats him to "roasted toadstools," "a glass of dandelion wine," and even "gave him a fag" (a British slang for a cigarette, not to be confused with the slur).

There is the undeniably childlike, riddle-esque flair to the lyricism of "The Laughing Gnome." Not only does it tell the tale of making friends with a folklore figure, but it also blurs out sounds and words that do not make sense. There are, of course, the "ha-ha-ha, hee-hee-hee" sections of the chorus, which are taken from the traditional jazz standard "Little Brown Jug." Bowie also takes it up a notch by making puns out of ordinary words that rhyme with gnome," replacing a syllable with the word itself: "gnome-man's land," "metro-gnome," "gnome-ads," "eco-gnome-ics," and "gnome-service."

"The Laughing Gnome" Popularized the Chipmunk Voice Before It Was Cool

As expected, "The Laughing Gnome" was a chart failure at the time of its initial release. However, the song also showed how forward-thinking Bowie was when it came to sound production. Decades before, Alvin and the Chipmunks took the early internet by storm with their sped-up, chipmunk-like voices, which are often used in song remixes. Bowie had already applied a similar technique on "The Laughing Gnome." In the backing vocals, listeners can hear the sped-up voices of Bowie and his engineer Gus Dudgeon, which further add to the comicalness of the already whimsical track. He would later implement the same vocal effect in future tracks, such as "After All" and "See Emily Play," though in a more intentional manner.

Most importantly, "The Laughing Gnome" is one of the earliest snapshots of Bowie as his eccentric self, but still unpolished. His song, and, by extension, his debut album, was Bowie experiencing his trial-and-error period as an artist, when he was experimenting freely without a clear sense of direction.

"Aarrghh, God, that Anthony Newley stuff, how cringey. No, I haven’t much to say about that in its favor. Lyrically, I guess it was really striving to be something, the short storyteller. Musically it’s quite bizarre. I don’t know where I was at. It seemed to have its roots all over the place, in rock and vaudeville and music hall and I don’t know what. I didn’t know if I was Max Miller or Elvis Presley. The Cheeky Chappy with a… with a… hip. [Laughs] I don’t know. It’s quite funny."

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Queen Drummer Roger Taylor Name-Checked "The Laughing Gnome" in His Solo Song

Almost half a decade after its initial release, "The Laughing Gnome" experienced an unexpected resurgence on the charts. By 1973, Bowie was enjoying the immense popularity brought on by one of his most celebrated works, the 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, which peaked in the UK top five. Simultaneously, "The Laughing Gnome" was reissued in September 1973, just as Bowie was at the height of his fame. This time, instead of being a commercial flop, the song climbed to number six on the UK charts.

Though Bowie may have considered "The Laughing Gnome" uncool in retrospect, at least one rock superstar thought otherwise. Roger Taylor, the beloved drummer of Queen, references the track in his solo song "No More Fun," singing: “From the ‘Stairway to Heaven’ to ‘The Laughing Gnome’ / It’s a mighty long way down rock and roll.” (The former, of course, refers to Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin.) If Taylor can see how "The Laughing Gnome" is part of the rock and roll spirit, then there's a lesson worth taking. Not every song needs to be profound. Sometimes, they can simply be written for the sheer fun of it.