Always look on the Bright side of Life! 1977 Words and Music by Eric Idle © KGB Music Featured in "Monty Python's Life of Brian" Handmade Films 1979 "Life's a piece of shit... When you look at it..." It was March 1977 and we were writing an early draft of "Monty Python's Life of Brian" and we couldn't think of an ending, so I suggested we ended with a song, and the idea arose that it could be a great big production number with everybody hanging on crosses being crucified - a sort of Spartacus musical. I remember we all laughed at the idea of them kicking their legs to the music. And then someone said well it has to be a ridiculously cheerful song, and I think I suggested it should be about "Looking on the Bright Side" like a Disney song and I improvised a little whistle. And everybody said "That's it." So it went into the script as "I'm looking on the Bright Side" and I said "I'll write it down" and I took some notes home that I had scribbled on the back of the script, got my guitar out and it didn't take me very long at all, maybe twenty minutes to sort out the basic riff and shape of the song, which was just verse, verse, and whistling chorus. When I had been ill in the early sixties I had studied "The Micky Baker Jazz Guitar Course" (I got as far as the dots and stopped) - which showed you how to vamp around certain basic chords. It would give you Gma7 Gma6 instead of G all the time, and sneaky little chords like diminisheds which would lead you in and out of things, and I basically just copped a nice mix of these Dm7 Am Gma6 and diminished chords. I had to collect my son from nursery school and I just remember driving back in a hurry so I could play him what I'd written, and he really liked it, and we sang it several times, whistling the chorus which I changed to "Always Look On The Bright Side of Life" to fit my tune. We recorded it at Chappell's in Bond Street on the 8th September 1978 after George Harrison picked up the movie and offered to pay for it all! John Altman arranged it for small orchestra, with a nice jazzy swing drum feel - and I put a sort of straight vocal on, and everybody liked it, but for some reason I wasn't quite convinced by the vocal I'd done, and it bothered me. Finally in Tunisia we played it outside on location during a break in filming for the Crew, and they all loved it, but suddenly I realised what was needed - it needed one of the characters in the film to sing it - in particular Mr. Cheeky, who was this cheery cockney character I was playing and who was based on one of our sparks (lighting guys). Palin: Crucifixion? Cheeky: No they said I could go free and live on an island somewhere. Palin: Oh, right, well jolly good, off you go. Cheeky: Nah. Only joking, it's crucifixion really. I realised Cheeky should sing the song, so I asked Garth the sound recordist if there was any way we could get a new vocal on, and he thought yes there was. So that night I took a bottle of Boukha - this lethal local Arab rocket-fuel date grappa - into the sound recordist's tiny bedroom at the Unit hotel. We stuck mattresses all round the walls of the room, and with him lying on the floor with a boom mike - and John Goldstone (the producer) lying down giggling in a corner I really let rip with the cheeky character - and it all just suddenly came to life - and basically (because we couldn't edit) it's just a live take of me in a hotel room in Tunisia! Only fifteen years later it was a hit. Even that was odd. I had a soccer pal - well be honest Gary Lineker - and he said "You know they're singing your song on the terraces" and I said "Don't be silly" and he insisted that they were. Occasionally I would hear them on Match of the Day. Then Simon Mayo began to play it every morning on his Radio One breakfast show, and Virgin said they were going to release it as a single. I still paid no attention, but suddenly it shot into the charts at about Number 35 which was very unexpected. And every week we would listen to top of the Pops and it kept (unbelievably) climbing. It peaked at Number Three because the World Rugby Cup was on and it was kept out by that silly Rugby theme song by Kiri Te Kanawa! But we got to Number One on the ITV charts which was fantastic. Then I did it for Top of The Pops and finally for the Queen at the Royal Variety Show with the Tiller girls and the Dagenham girl pipers which was all very silly! Eric Idle Excerpt from Say No More, the unpublished memoirs of an ex-Python. ------------------------------------------------------- ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE - Cover Versions Harry Nilsson - the first to record it - as his album "Flash Harry" Jazz Gitt (Germany) - recorded as "Alles Geht Mit Dem Sonnenschein Im Herz" Mark Curvers - (Belgium) recorded as "Altied Dreenk Ich M'n Peent Lekker Oct" Solfern (Denmark) - recorded as "Hvis Du Foler Dig Lidt Bla" Black Fooss (Germany) - recorded as "Woehr Is Nur Dat Nix" Kurorchester Bad Dortmund (Germany) - recorded as "Schau Schon Immer Auf Die Breitseite" Die Deutschmacher (Germany) - recorded as "Immer Kuch Auf Die Helle Seite Vom Leben" Autopsy (Germany) - recorded as "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Death" Bruce Cockburn (UK) - on the album "Bruce Cockburn Live" The Royal Tank Regiment (UK) - on the album "Making Tracks" The Royal Tank Regiment (UK) - on the album "A Dalute To A New Beginning" The Countdown Orchestra (UK) - on the album "Music Of The Movies #2" Ole Erling(?) - on the album "Hammond Evergreens #2" Franz Lambert (Germany) - on the album "Please Don't Go - Die Hits" Die Ministars (Germany) - on the album "Kinderstars" Hit Kids (Germany) - on the album "Kinderhitparade - Turboneau" Coronation Street - single and Album Art Garfunkel - from the movie "As Good As It Gets"