[3] Idle performed the song live to a global audience at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony during the one-hour symphony of British Music segment.
[4] Whilst trying to come up with a way of ending the film Monty Python's Life of Brian, Eric Idle wrote an original version of the song on a Gibson J-50 guitar using only jazz chords he learnt from a course by Mickey Baker.
However, Michael Palin noted in his diary for 16 June 1978 that during a script meeting, "Eric's two songs—'Otto' and the 'Look on the Bright Side' crucifixion song—are rather coolly received before lunch.
After a succession of apparent rescue opportunities all come to nothing, a character on a nearby cross (played by Eric Idle) attempts to cheer him up by singing "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life".
"Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" was arranged and conducted by John Altman and recorded at Chappell's Studio[5] with a full orchestra and the Fred Tomlinson Singers.
The song touched a chord with the British trait of stoicism and the "stiff upper lip" in the face of disaster, and became immensely popular.
"If Spamalot is hot And you like it, or per'aps not A bunch of knights in search of Holy Grails; When you're 60 years of age And your mum won't leave the stage, It's good to know that you're still Prince of Wales!"
"When you're stuck on the world's stage With lots of loonies half your age, And everything is starting to go wrong, It’s too late to run away, You might as well just stay, Especially when they play your silly song!"
Nine years later when the film was released on VHS, the song was reissued on 21 November 1988 in an edited form to remove profanity, with a full version of "Brian" on the B-side.
Despite some predictions, it did not manage to bring an end to Bryan Adams's unprecedented run at the top of the UK Singles Chart with "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You", instead peaking at number 3 and leading to a re-promotion for the 1989 compilation Monty Python Sings, which the song opens.
Two cover versions, by Tenor Fly (incorporating the piano riff from Nina Simone's "My Baby Just Cares for Me"), and the cast of Coronation Street (with main vocals by Bill Waddington,[15] who played Percy Sugden in the show), both reached the charts in 1995, with The Coronation Street Single version reaching number 35.
German fun punk band Heiter bis Wolkig also made a version with changed lyrics called "Versuch's mal von der breiten Seite zu seh'n".
The British duo Amateur Transplants made a parody version of "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" as well, with lyrics in which only the name and the chorus of the original song are retained.
The song appears twice in the Broadway musical Spamalot, based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail – once in Act II and again during the curtain call.
The song is used at the end of Not the Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy), the comedic oratorio written by Eric Idle and collaborator John Du Prez.