How Robin Gibb wrote the melody for a 1968 Bee Gees classic 30,000 feet above Essen: “We accosted the pilot”
While flying over Essen on a British Airways Vickers Viscount, Robin Gibb heard a melody in the drone of the aircraft’s engines. That tune became ‘I Started A Joke’, one of the Bee Gees’ best-known songs from the 1960s, after Gibb and his brother worked on the lyrics.
Gibb later joked that they had accosted the pilot and forced him to land so they could finish the song in a pub. He subsequently clarified that the plane landed in the city, and that they completed the lyrics in a hotel, not a pub; the tale of forcing the pilot to land was an embellishment.
- Engine noise inspired the melody for ‘I Started A Joke’.
- Robin Gibb and his brother finished the lyrics in Essen.
- Gibb later admitted he embellished the landing story.
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The Bee Gees were an English rock band formed by brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb. They achieved major commercial success in the 1960s and became known for their distinctive vocal harmonies and songwriting. "I Started A Joke" was one of their best-known songs from that era.
The song's origins trace to an aeroplane flight over Essen, Germany, where Robin Gibb heard a melody in the drone of the aircraft's engines. He and his brother Barry subsequently worked on the melody and composed the song's lyrics. Gibb initially embellished the tale, joking that they had forced the pilot to land so they could complete the work in a pub, but later clarified that the aircraft landed in Essen and they actually finished it in a hotel.