‘Bright Side of Life’ is UK’s funeral favorite
Eric Idle’s whistle-along crucifixion hit, from Monty Python’s Jerusalem-set religious-satire ‘Life of Brian,’ tops poll of send-off songs
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Monty Python’s “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” the cheery crucifixion hit that brings the 1979 movie “Life of Brian” to its whistle-along conclusion, has become the most popular song played at funerals in Britain.
Written by Eric Idle, and since ubiquitous at soccer stadiums, other sporting events and even among troops at war, the song has replaced Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” as the tune most played at funerals for the first time in a decade, a survey found Friday.
Sinatra’s 1969 hit has dropped down to fifth place — behind the Psalm “The Lord is My Shepherd,” “Abide with Me” and the theme to the BBC soccer show “Match of the Day” — in the study of songs played at 30,000 funerals by the Co-operative Funeralcare.
The British comedy troupe’s smash-hit movie, a religious satire that was hugely controversial on first release but has since become regarded as being among the greatest film comedies of all time, is set in Jerusalem and was filmed in Tunisia.
It ends with its alternative Jesus, young Brian Cohen — played by Graham Chapman — crucified on a hillside with a group of others, one of whom starts singing the absurdly optimistic “Always Look…” when all hope of their rescue has disappeared. (Full lyrics here.)
Fittingly, the surviving Pythons also sang it at a private funeral service for Chapman when he died in 1989.
The Times of Israel Community.