You Just Never Know

Endings can be hard - be it poetry or prose, if it began at its beginning, its ending is not always obvious; in fact, it often feels easier to seek a beginning to suit a good ending than vice versa.  The perfect ending can seem impossible to find, and yet sometimes it is the one that looks least suitable that can turn out to be the one you were seeking.

In 1978, a few creative types were sitting around, contemplating an offering made by one of their group to be used as the closing song for an otherwise almost complete movie.  He sang it - they didn't like it.  They adjourned for lunch, and came back for the afternoon's brainstorming session.  The disliked song was fiddled with, adjusted, and tried in different styles.  No one else could come up with anything that the group agreed upon as better, so they decided that "it would do"

The movie hit the screens in 1979 - in 1982 the crews of two British warships that had been sunk in the Falklands war were singing that song as they awaited rescue.  That song went on to be covered by other artists from almost all musical genres, it was adopted by Aston Villa football club as the team chant, was performed at the close of the 2012 Olympics, and has been one of the more popular pieces to be played at funerals in many parts of the world.

It is, of course, "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life"

Almost eliminated in the opening round of consideration, it was given a second look and went on to be considered the perfect ending to Monty Python's "Life of Brian" - even reaching number one on the charts in Ireland, despite the film having been banned there.

This little story doesn't tell me how to produce the perfect ending for a piece of work, or even how to formulate a pretty good one - but it tells me that if an ending has presented itself for consideration, it should not be tritely discarded or dismissed.  Pin it up there with the other working notes and come back to it later.  Turn it around, or inside out, or read it aloud in a few different voices - after all, changing the singing style of "Always Look..." from deadpan to comedic was all it took to secure its spot in history.