An iconic joke featured on The Simpsons was made because of a budget constraint.
Season Seven, Episode Four, Bart Sells His Soul, features one of the most celebrated jokes in the show’s decades-long history. The episode features Bart selling his soul to Milhouse and then attempting to get it back from his best friend. But the joke is not to do with the plot line featured on this episode of the show, but a gag featuring the residents of Springfield at the First Church of Springfield. The scene, which features the Iron Butterfly song, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, has gone down in the show’s history as one of the best jokes of all, but it could have been very different. A former showrunner and writer for the show, Bill Oakley, has confirmed there was a very different joke in place.
But a change to the joke had to be made as the initial choice of song proved too pricey to use. The scene, which features the church organ music swapped out for the notes to the Iron Butterfly classic, was originally meant to feature a song from Led Zeppelin.
Oakley took to Twitter and confirmed: “It was originally Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin, but the music was too expensive, so we had to go with this more obscure track.” Fans were split upon learning of the original song choice. Some believed the Iron Butterfly track was a strong alternative, while others hoped to hear the Led Zeppelin classic in its place.
One fan replied: “Much better with Iron Butterfly.” Another added: “This ended up being much better for comedy purposes.” A third wrote: “This was the better choice. The song name is still biblical but not as obvious, and the fact that the real song is seventeen minutes makes it way funnier than an eight-minute one.
“Also for the longest time, I thought the song was called In the Garden of Eden until I looked it up.” Others have suggested The Simpsons’ influence on the song is longer-lasting too, with the Iron Butterfly track brought to people’s attention through the show. One person wrote: “I never knew it was a real song until this moment.”
Another added: “The fact that Bart seems so cultured in Rock Music to orchestrate such a stunt in the first place.” A third shared: “I feel like I grew up thinking this song was more popular than it was because of this scene specifically.”
Other replies to Oakley’s now-deleted post suggested the alternative song used was a far stronger choice than the original. One person hailed The Simpsons team behind the episode, writing: “Stairway to Heaven is a great song, but I think it was a blessing in disguise you had to use In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida because the lyrics work better and the song’s famously long.”
