"Rubber Band" is a song by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie. It was recorded in October 1966 following Bowie's dismissal from Pye Records and helped secure him a record contract with Decca-subsidiary Deram Records, who released it as a single in the United Kingdom on 2 December of the same year. A departure from the mod-style sound of his previous releases, "Rubber Band" displays a style informed by vaudeville and British music hall – influenced particularly by British actor Anthony Newley. The lyrics tell the story of a man who goes off to war and, upon his return, finds his lover fell for a brass band conductor.

Like his other early singles, "Rubber Band" failed to chart. Nevertheless, Bowie's biographers note that the track represents a creative leap in the artist's songwriting. The song was re-recorded in February 1967 for Bowie's first full-length album, David Bowie (1967). Produced by Mike Vernon, the remake has a slower tempo and a varied vocal performance from Bowie. London Records issued the remake as a single in the United States on 27 May 1967. Both versions have since appeared on various compilation albums.

Following a string of singles that failed to chart, David Bowie was let go from Pye Records in September 1966. In order to secure him a new record contract, his soon-to-be manager Kenneth Pitt financed a recording session the next month at London's R G Jones Studio. On 18 October, Bowie and his backing band the Buzz, recorded a new version of "The London Boys", along with two new songs "Rubber Band" and "The Gravedigger" (later retitled "Please Mr. Gravedigger"). Joining them for the session were trumpeter Chick Norton and, for the tuba and oboe, two now unknown musicians. However, the band were inexperienced with the song arrangements and had to be assisted by the other musicians to complete the session. Buzz member Dek Fearnley, who co-produced the session with Bowie, later said in 1991: "We'd worked out what kind of sound we wanted and had painstakingly written out the notation, but all the timings were wrong. Luckily the musicians interpreted what we had written and we got through it."

Two days after the session, Pitt showed the tape of "Rubber Band" to the promotional head of Decca Records, Tony Hall, who was impressed: "I must say I did flip. This guy had such a different sound, such a different approach," stating in 1983. Four days later on 24 October, Pitt showed the remaining tracks to Decca's A&R manager Hugh Mendl and in-house producer Mike Vernon, who were also impressed, signing Bowie to the label's progressive pop subsidiary Deram Records. Biographer Chris O'Leary summarises: "Financed by Pitt, the "Rubber Band" single landed Bowie an album deal with Deram, a newly founded Decca subsidiary label. As Decca chairman Sir Edward Lewis regarded rock as one would a permanent rash, Deram aimed to give rock a pedigree, offering 'exotic' pop singles and 'conceptual' albums."

A departure from the mod-style of his previous singles, "Rubber Band" presents a new direction influenced by Bowie's newfound infatuation with English musical theater actor Anthony Newley; Bowie had first discovered him through the BBC serial The Strange World of Gurney Slade (1960). When asked about the separation between rock stars and himself, Newley stated that "I could afford to be silly and they couldn't. The whole rock 'n' roll thing was so desperately serious." According to O'Leary, Bowie felt he had taken himself too seriously up to that point in his career and looked to Newley, along with songwriters Lionel Bart and Alan Klein, for a new direction to take his career. Additionally, Bowie found the musical landscape changing in 1966, moving away from London-based mod music to California-based psychedelia. As it changed, Bowie followed suit, using Klein's vaudeville group as the basis for "Rubber Band".

Musically, "Rubber Band" is compared by James Perone to the march-style brass band works of conductor John Philip Sousa. NME editors Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray see the song as an "early manifestation of the Edwardian fixation that affected the more whimsical areas of mid-60's Brit[ish] pop". Other artists exploring Edwardian influences during the era included the Kinks on Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) (1969) and the Beatles on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967). Utilising various tempo and arrangement changes, the track starts on A minor in its opening verses before changing to B minor in the trumpet solo, C♯ minor in the last verse and E♭ minor in the coda.

Lyrically, "Rubber Band" tells the story of a man who goes off to war and, upon his return, finds that his lover fell for a brass band conductor. Bowie imitates Newley in his vocal performance. According to O'Leary, Bowie used his grandfather Jimmy Burns for inspiration, although this is disputed by Nicholas Pegg. Pegg states that the lyric's "library gardens", where Bowie would perform in 1969, are located in Bromley.

Deram issued "Rubber Band", backed by "The London Boys", as a single in the United Kingdom on 2 December 1966, with the catalogue number Deram DM107. It was accompanied by a Decca press release that stated that the single was "a love story without a happy ending, it is a pathos set to tubas ... There's a neat off-beat approach to the lyrics that touch on such topics as garden tea parties, waxed moustaches and the First World War. Yet the underlying sentiment reflects the ideals and humour of this London-born singer." The single attracted the attention of the British magazine Disc, who wrote at the time: