“Death Cab for Cutie” is a song composed by Vivian Stanshall and Neil Innes and performed by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. It was included on their 1967 album Gorilla. They are a band created by a group of British art-school denizens of the 1960s. Combining elements of music hall, trad jazz, psychedelic rock, and avant-garde art. As the Bonzo Dog band’s popularity increased, they were asked by Paul McCartney to appear in The Beatles film “Magical Mystery Tour” film in 1967.
The band Death Cab For Cutie took the name when singer Benjamin Gibbard saw the movie and thought to himself, “hmmm, that’s as good of a name as any and i’m sure to bet no other band in the world will name themselves that.”
The scene was filmed on September 18, 1967 below at Raymond Revuebar in London, it was the accompaniment for a striptease act performed by Jan Carson while she was ogled by club customers including John Lennon and George Harrison.
Paul McCartney under the pseudonym “Apollo C. Vermouth”even produced one of Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band songs called “I’m the Urban Spaceman“. It was the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band’s most successful single, released in 1968. It reached #5 in the UK charts.