Who wrote the lyrics to the theme song 'Suicide is Painless'?

Mike Altman wrote the lyrics to the theme song “Suicide Is Painless.” The music was composed by Johnny Mandel for the 1970 film M*A*S*H.

Director Robert Altman originally wanted a deliberately foolish song for the film’s fake-suicide sequence, in which Private Seidman sings at Walter “Painless Pole” Waldowski’s mock funeral. Altman tried writing the lyrics himself but found the task difficult, so he asked his 15-year-old son Michael, often credited as Mike, to write them. Michael reportedly completed the lyrics in about five minutes.

The song became much more important than its original scene suggested. Altman used it as the film’s main theme, and an instrumental arrangement later opened and closed the M*A*S*H television series. The vocal recording was performed by session singers and released under the name The Mash.

A common mix-up is crediting Robert Altman or Johnny Mandel with the entire song. Mandel wrote the melody; Mike Altman wrote the words. The song later reached number one on the UK singles chart in 1980.