I Started a Joke (Song)

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“I Started a Joke” is a song by the Bee Gees from their 1968 album Idea, which was released as a single in December of that year. It was not released as a single in the United Kingdom, where buyers who could not afford the album had to content themselves with a Polydor version by Heath Hampstead. This is the last Bee Gees single to feature Vince Melouney‘s guitar work, as he left the band in early December after this song was released as a single.

The song’s B-side was “Kilburn Towers“, except in France, where “Swan Song” was used. “I Started a Joke” was written by Robin mainly, with help from Barry and Maurice Gibb on the bridge. It was produced by the Bee Gees with Robert Stigwood.

Composition and recording

Songs for the Idea album were completed on 20 June. “I Started A Joke” was the last to be recorded.

According to Robin Gibb, the melancholic melody of the song was inspired by the sounds on board an aeroplane:

The melody to this one was heard aboard a British Airways Vickers Viscount about a hundred miles from Essen. It was one of those old four engine “prop” jobs, that seemed to drone the passenger into a sort of hypnotic trance, only with this it was different. The droning, after a while, appeared to take the form of a tune, which mysteriously sounded like a church choir. So it was decided! We accosted the pilot, forced him to land in the nearest village and there, in a small pub, we finished the lyrics [with Barry]. Actually, it wasn’t a village, it was the city, and it wasn’t a pub, it was a hotel, and we didn’t force the pilot to land in a field … but why ruin a perfectly good story?

“There was a lot of that in those days” Barry laughed, “There was a lot of psychedelia and the idea that if you wrote something, even if it sounded ridiculous, somebody would find the meaning for it, and that was the truth”.

Structure and release

The song was originally recorded in the key of G major and has two contrasting sections. The verse sections consist of a cycle of G Bm C and D chords. The chords for the bridge section are Em Bm C G Bm Em Am D.

The promotional video for “I Started a Joke” was directed by Jean-Christophe Averty. It was filmed in Brussels as part of the Idea TV Special and features floating question marks on the song while Robin sings. In the video, Maurice is shown playing a Rickenbacker 4001 and Vince Melouney playing a Gibson ES-335.

The song reached #1 in Canada, New Zealand and Australia. In Canada, it spent two weeks as the number one in RPM charts. “I Started a Joke” debuted at #66 at the United States Cashbox magazine in the week of 14 December 1968.

Robin Gibb’s son played “I Started a Joke” on his phone just after his father died on 20 May 2012. Robin-John Gibb told The Sun:

When he passed away we went out, they took the equipment away and we came back in, I picked up my phone and found “I Started a Joke” on YouTube and played it. I put the phone on his chest and that was the first time I broke down. I knew that song and its lyrics were perfect for that moment. That song will always have new meaning to me now.

Cash Box described it as being in the Bee Gees’ “softer” style, saying it was more in the style of “Words” than “Gotta Get a Message to You,” and said that the “paradoxical imagery offers magnetic charm to mystical interpretation.”

Personnel

Bee Gees

• Robin Gibb – lead and backing vocals
• Barry Gibb – rhythm guitar
• Maurice Gibb – bass guitar, piano, hammond organ, mellotron
• Vince Melouney – lead guitar
• Colin Petersen – drums

Additional musician and production

• Bill Shepherd – orchestral arrangement
• Bee Gees, Robert Stigwood – producer

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Faith No More version

Faith No More originally covered “I Started a Joke” as a B-side for their 1995 single “Digging the Grave“. It also appeared on some versions of their fifth studio album King for a Day… Fool for a Lifetime but following the band’s dissolution in 1998 it was released as a single with their greatest hits album Who Cares a Lot?. The music video was filmed on 8 September 1998, after Faith No More had disbanded five months earlier and featured none of the band members. It was directed by Vito Rocco, filmed by Nick Sawyer with make-up by Julie Nightingale and Dani Richardson with Gabi Norland as the clapper loader. British actors Martin Freeman and Shaun Dingwall both feature in the promo, along with performance artist David Hoyle as the karaoke singer, and also stars Michelle Butterly of the ITV series, Benidorm. Derren Litten, the writer of Benidorm and a contributor to The Catherine Tate Show, is also seen in the video.

Track listing

Disc one

1. “I Started a Joke” – 3:03
2. “The World Is Yours” – 5:52
3. “Midnight Cowboy” (Live) – 1:01

Disc two

1. “I Started a Joke” – 3:03
2. “This Guy’s in Love with You” (Live) – 4:20
3. “We Care a Lot” (Live) – 3:55

Live tracks recorded on 21 October 1997 at the Horden Pavilion, Sydney, Australia by MTV Australia.

Charts

Other notable cover versions

• In 1997, German band Element of Crime took a cover for the tribute-sampler We Love The Bee Gees; they released it also 1998 as own single and another time 2010 on their own album Fremde Federn.

• In 1998, Robbie Williams with The Orb released a reggae rendition of the song and it was included on the Bee Gees Tribute Album: Gotta Get a Message for You as a fundraiser for Live Challenge ’99.

• In June 2016, German satirist Jan Böhmermann covered the song live on his TV show Neo Magazin Royale, commenting on the Böhmermann affair.

• In June 2025, Paul Weller released his cover version of the song ahead of his forthcoming covers album, Find El-Dorado

• The Wallflowers – I Started A Joke

• Allie Sherlock – I Started A Joke

• I started a joke – Instrumental cover by Dave Monk

• MARJ & FRANCO – I STARTED A JOKE

• Mike Sinatra – I Started a Joke

• Pet Shop Boys – I Started A Joke

• Steve Reynolds – I Started A Joke

• Jan Baeyens – I Started A Joke

• Mai Thanh Sơn & Tiến Dũng – I Started A Joke

• The Last Drones – I Started A Joke

• Eddy Arnold – I Started a Joke

• Si James Galway – I Stated A Joke

• Fabrian Goroncy – I Started A Joke

• James E Green – I Started A Joke

• Edgar Red – I Started A Joke

• James Last

Parodies

“I Started a Joke” was parodied by a Radio Free Vestibule sketch in which a voiced-over commentary takes the lyrics completely literally, appeared on the film Zoolander as covered by The Wallflowers.

The song “I Started a Joke” was featured heavily in the ending of the film Penn & Teller Get Killed, which features the two magicians playing a succession of increasingly elaborate practical jokes on each other with a fatal conclusion.

Idea (album)

Idea is the fifth album by the Bee Gees. Released in August 1968, the album sold over a million copies worldwide. The album was issued in both mono and stereo pressings in the UK.^[1][2] The artwork on the Polydor release designed by Wolfgang Heilemann featured a “beehive” neon lightbulb with a group photo in its base, while the North American ATCO release designed by Klaus Voormann featured a composite head made from each band member. It was their third internationally released album – the first two albums being released only in the Australian market.

“I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You” and “I Started a Joke” were both released as singles in North America. In the UK, “Message” was released only as a single and “I Started a Joke” was only an album track, though another album track, “Kitty Can“, was featured on the B-side of “I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You”. The LP’s opening track, “Let There Be Love“, in a limited release as a single in early 1970, reached the Top 20 in the Netherlands.

The North American ATCO LP and the South African Polydor LP replaced “Such a Shame” with “I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You”. Both songs were included when the album was released on CD in 1989.

Background

Idea, released in August 1968, was the Bee Gees’ third international album. “We were in friction at that point,” says Barry. “We weren’t getting on, and that was it. I think it was a mixture of the group not getting along very well and egos. Ego, I think, is the key word for this group. It’s not unlike any other group in that everybody wants to be the one that gets the attention. Unfortunately, I think that happens a lot. Certainly it happened to us.”

Many of the songs on the album’s second side reflect a yearning for escape (“When the Swallows Fly,” “I’ve Decided to Join the Air Force,” “Swan Song”) while Vince Melouney’s “Such a Shame” was, by his own admission, about how it was a shame that the group was disintegrating.

“In the Summer of His Years” was Robin’s requiem for the Beatles‘ manager Brian Epstein who had died in August 1967. “I’ve Decided to Join the Air Force” was written specially for the occasion when the Bee Gees played at the Royal Albert Hall earlier in 1968 with the musicians of the Royal Air Force backing them.

Barry Gibb performed “Kilburn Towers” on his Mythology tour of 2013-14 while “Swan Song” made a surprise appearance on the first disc of the 2010 Mythology compilation.

Recording

The band recorded its previous album Horizontal between July and December 1967. The last song recorded was “Swan Song,” but this was not released until 1968 on Idea. “Words” was released as a single in place of “Swan Song.”

The band started recording Idea in January 1968 after a Christmas holiday in Australia, and a few weeks after the Horizontal sessions. The songs recorded were “Chocolate Symphony”, “The Singer Sang His Song“, “Down to Earth”, “I Can Lift a Mountain”, (“Gena’s Theme” was finished in June,) “Jumbo” was released as a non-album single, “Bridges Crossing Rivers”, and “She Is Russia”. The February songs are “In the Summer of His Years” and “I’ve Decided to Join the Air Force”. By March, Barry, Maurice, and Colin participated on the track “By the Light of the Burning Candle” by The Marbles, a newly formed band at that time made up of members Graham Bonnet and Trevor Gordon. Between June and July in 1968, they recorded “Kitty Can“, “I.O.I.O.“, “Let There Be Love“, “Stepping Out”, and “No Name”. In June, Robin recorded “The Band Will Meet Mr. Justice”, “The People’s Public Joke”, “Indian Gin and Whisky Dry”, “The Girl to Share Each Day”, “Come Some Halloween or Christmas Day”, “My Love Life Expired”, and “Heaven in My Hand”, a mono tape of seven songs which was credited only to him. In the same month, they recorded “Completely Unoriginal”, “Kilburn Towers“, the Vince Melouney composition “Such a Shame”, “Indian Gin and Whisky Dry”, “When the Swallows Fly”, “Idea”, “Come Some Christmas Eve or Halloween”, “Maypole News”, “Men of Men”, and “I Started a Joke”.^[9]

The other songs recorded around 1968 included “Sitting in the Meadow” and “Another Cold and Windy Day,” both recorded for Coca-Cola, “In the Middle of Grass,” “Let Your Heart Out,” and “The Square Cup”. “Everything That Came From Mother Goose” was written by Colin Petersen and Maurice Gibb, and Petersen mentioned this song in an interview in September 1968. In July, “I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You” was recorded in the same session as “I Laugh in Your Face” (released on Odessa, 1969) following the completion of the album, but was only included on the US version.

Release and reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Rolling Stone	(neutral)
The Rolling Stone Album Guide

This album features “Such a Shame”, the only non-Gibb Bee Gees song included on any of their studio albums, written and co-sung by lead guitarist Vince Melouney. The song was included on the British version of the album but deleted from the American issue, which instead included their recent hit “I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You”, not on the UK LP. When the album was issued on CD in the 1980s, both tracks were included. “I Started a Joke” was not issued as a single in the UK, but it reached No. 6 in America. The UK sleeve had a lightbulb on a dark blue ground. In 2006, Reprise Records reissued Idea (using the European cover) with both stereo and mono mixes on one disc and a bonus disc of unreleased songs, non-album tracks, and alternate mixes. After the release of Idea, the band went to Brussels for the TV special Idea in September, and European tour in October and November.

Jared Johnson, writing in the Atlanta Constitution, opined that Idea was ‘a vast improvement’ over the Bee Gees’ previous LP, ‘though they still haven’t reached their full potential.’ Mike Newsome, writing in the Lancaster Telegraph said that the album was ‘packed with original Bee Gees ideas, imagination and inventiveness.’ Wayne Harada in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser said that the album ‘showcases the expressive Bee Gees moods and lyricism’. Of 21st century critics, Allmusic‘s Bruce Eder describes “I Started a Joke” as very much of piece with their early work. Eder claims “Kitty Can”, “Indian Gin and Whisky Dry” and “Such a Shame” sound like the output of a working band with a cohesive group sound, rather than a harmony vocal group with accompaniment.

This was to be the last Bee Gees album released while Vince Melouney was a member of the group: he left after the late 1968 European tour. He was to conclude that “I was just too young, too naive.” His final album with the band would be Odessa, which had been recorded in August that year.

Track listing (UK)

All songs written by Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb, except “Such a Shame”, written and composed by Vince Melouney.

American release

It was released also in August on the Atco label, and was released in stereo. “I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You” was included on this version instead of “Such a Shame”. Its cover was a composite head by Klaus Voormann, the artist who also did the Bee Gees’ 1st art.

1989 and 2006 reissue track listings

1989 reissue

All songs written by Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb, except “Such a Shame”, written and composed by Vince Melouney.

2006 expanded reissue

Personnel

Credits from Bee Gees historian and sessionographer Joseph Brennan. Bee Gees

• Barry Gibb – lead vocals, harmony and backing vocals, rhythm guitar
• Robin Gibb – lead vocals, harmony and backing vocals
• Maurice Gibb – harmony and backing vocals, bass, piano, Hammond organ, Mellotron
• Vince Melouney – lead guitar, harmonica, lead vocals on “Such a Shame”
• Colin Petersen – drums

Additional musician and production

• Bill Shepherd – orchestral arrangement
• Bee Gees – producers
• Robert Stigwood – producer
• John Pantry, Damon Lyon Shaw – engineer
• Klaus Voormann – art cover (US version)

Charts

Weekly charts

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