Advice: Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life

Monty Python: Always Look on the Bright Side of Life (original)
[purchase]

Harry Nilsson: Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
[out of print]

Bruce Cockburn: Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
[purchase]

Brobdingnagian Bards: Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
[purchase]

And now for something completely different...

Here's some sage advice and advocacy for cheerful eternal optimism originally delivered from the cross at the close of Monty Python's Life of Brian. The story has it that the guys were hot and "cross" (if you'll pardon the pun) up on their crucifixes while filming the final scene, so Eric Idle started making stuff up to entertain them all. In the end, the Python troupe chose to make the song into a kind of wide-shot cinematic nod to the big finish, a majestic parody of the type of big number that closes, say, a Disney film, all the better to make light of the impending death of the singing, dancing characters.

I've also included three great covers of the same, each arguably as zany and tongue-in-cheek as the original, from three artists with a strong handle on irony themselves. Bonus points: Eric Idle actually worked with Harry Nilsson on the production of Flash Harry, Nilsson's obscure and out of print last full album, from whence the above cover comes.