Songfacts®:

• This primitive track has a pretty basic message, with the same stanza repeated several times:
  
  I'm a Neanderthal man
  You're a Neanderthal girl
  Let's make Neanderthal love
  In this Neanderthal world
  
  It's consistent with the caveman theme, as language was still developing.
• Hotlegs (Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme) was the house band for Strawberry Studios in Stockport, England. The band was named Hotlegs in honor of a secretary at the studio.
• The band didn't have grand ambitions for this song: they were playing it to test a new drum kit and 4-track recorder at Strawberry Studios when they improvised "Neanderthal Man." Phillips label chief Dick Leahy happened to be around, thought it had potential, and got them to record it on his label. It sold over 2 million copies worldwide and topped the charts in Italy.
  
  Despite the success of the single, Hotlegs stayed focused on studio work for other artists. In 1972, with the addition of Graham Gouldman, they became 10cc, one of the top UK acts of the '70s.
• The band made a promotional film for this song that was clearly inspired by the 1966 film One Million Years B.C. A decade later, Godley and Creme became visionary directors in the world of music videos.
• In 2006, Kevin Godley and Graham Gouldman reworked this song into a track called "Son of Man," which tells the story of 10cc:
  
  They were joined at the heart, joined at the hip
  Working in any old piece of s--t
  For experience and the hell of it
  Fueled by cigarettes and curry
  Hashish, lack of sleep and worry
  Turned out crap they thought was funny
  Because they knew that there were diamonds hidden in the trash
  
  In 2018, Godley made a video for the song.