I wonder does the song Mr Apollo by The Bonzo Dog Band have anything to do with Paul's nickname (Apollo C. Vermouth) they brought him when he produced their single?
The problem was, in fact, Gerry Bron, who was our producer. After three hours, he said, "That's it. We've got to move on to the next track." It was because Gerry was like this, in fact, that's how Paul McCartney ended up producing "Urban Spaceman." Because the record company was saying, "well, what about a single? What about a single?" <…> So Viv was down the Speakeasy Club, I think, with Paul, talking generally, he used to hang out quite a bit. And Viv was complaining about the fact that Gerry was sort of, "Right, three hours of that, move on." And he said, now we gotta go in and record this bloody single. So Paul said, "I'll come and produce it if you like." And that was perfect, because that was the only way we were going to get him off the control desk, to have somebody like Paul, who wasn't known as a record producer, but he was known. So he came and produced that, and took eight hours. <…> But why it took eight hours, was because, you know, Paul's used to sort of spending hours in the studio and hanging out. I remember it was quite funny, because he sat down on the piano and played "Hey Jude" all the way through. No one had heard it then. He'd only just written it. He said, I've just written this, and he played, sang "Hey Jude." And of course, the people watching the clock were going absolutely apeshit. We did things like double-track the drums, and Viv wanted to blow his trumpet mouthpiece into a garden hose, with a plastic funnel on the end, whirling around his head. The engineer said, "I can't record that." Paul said, "Yeah, you can. Just put a microphone in each corner." So that took 20 minutes. Anyway, it was a really good time. He played Viv's ukelele, and Gerry's wife Lillian came up to him at one point and said, "What's that you've got there? A poor man's violin?" And he said, "No, it's a rich man's ukelele." It was just lots of cheek and banter going on. Q: Was there any thought of using Paul as a producer again? Why didn't he do anything else with you; was he too busy? Neil Innes: He probably wasn't [busy], actually. He probably would have loved to. But it didn't cross our minds. All that crossed our minds was so we could annoy Gerry even more by sort of refusing to allow Paul's name to go on the record. So we came up with the name Apollo C. Vermouth, and we kept it like that for a good four or five weeks.
( Neil Innes, interview with Richie Unterberger, January 2001)
You know! You know! He's the strongest man The world has ever seen And if you take his courses He'll make you big and rough And…And you can kick the sand Right back in their faces! Kick! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! When you're tough (You're very fit) Your voice is gruff (It sounds like grit) You are so strong (And proud of it) Thanks to Mr. Apollo Follow Mr. Apollo Everybody knows he's the greatest benefactor of mankind <…> No tiresome exercises! No tricks! No unpleasant bending! Wrestle poodles and win! Play beach ball! Shave your legs! (He can do it for you!) Lope over walls! Tease people! Brush them aside as though they were matchsticks! Impress your friends!
(Mr. Apollo, 1968)
