[1] It first appeared as the A-side of the group's second 7" single, released in a mono mix on 17 November 1972, with a stereo mix appearing three weeks later on the group's third LP Monty Python's Previous Record.

The song relates the tale of the half-a-bee, having been "bisected accidentally" by his owner one summer's afternoon.

The song ends with Cleese saying he loves his pet half-a-bee "semi-carnally", which Palin mishears as Cyril Connolly, a British writer and literary critic.

[2] On more than one occasion, Cleese has expressed his regret in not having the song follow "Fish Licence" in the sketch's airing on Monty Python's Flying Circus (Episode 23, "Scott of the Antarctic" 1970) as he describes himself as "most unmusical."

More than half a century later, Cleese returned to the song, when he performed a version of it on his TV show The Dinosaur Hour.