This week on the show, I’m keeping things light and easy with a show all about happiness in popular song. I’m not simply looking at songs that can be construed as “happy,” but songs where being happy (or trying to become happy) is the actual theme.
Most major songwriters from the Great American Songbook wrote songs about this, including Richard Rodgers, Harold Arlen, and Jule Styne. We’ll hear those songs and more this hour, sung by Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, and Nat King Cole.
Songs featured on this episode:
- "Get Happy" (Arlen/Koehler)
- 1930, one of Harold Arlen's first songs
- "Happiness Is A Thing Called Joe" (Arlen/Harburg)
- From the 1943 film Cabin In The Sky
- "Let's Get Happy" (Arons)
- Performed by the King Cole Trio in 1939
- "Put On A Happy Face" (Strouse/Adams)
- From the 1960 musical Bye Bye Birdie
- "Happy Talk" (Rodgers/Hammerstein)
- From the 1949 musical South Pacific
- "I Want To Be Happy" (Youmans/Caesar)
- From the 1925 musical No, No Nanette
- "Sometimes I'm Happy" (Youmans/Caesar)
- From the 1927 musical Hit The Deck
- "I'll Die Happy" (Moore/Hendricks)
- Performed by Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five in 1954
- "I Whistle A Happy Tune" (Rodgers/Hammerstein)
- From the 1951 musical The King and I
- "Sam's Song (The Happy Tune)" (Elliot/Quadling)
- Made famous by Bing and Gary Crosby in 1950
- "Then I'll Be Happy" (Brown/Clare/Friend)
- Written in 1925, and often under the title "I Wanna Go Where You Go"
- "Shout For Happiness" (Hart/Blight)
- Performed by Al Bowlly and Ray Noble in 1931
- "Walking Happy" (Van Heusen/Cahn)
- From the 1966 musical Walking Happy
- "Happy Together" (Gordon/Bonner)
- Originally performed by The Turtles in 1967
- "Make Someone Happy" (Styne/Comden/Green)
- From the 1960 musical Do, Re, Mi
- "Happy Days Are Here Again" (Ager/Yellen)
- Used in the 1932 Presidential campaign of Franklin Roosevelt
- "Smile" (Parsons/Turner/Chaplin)
- Originally from the 1936 Charlie Chaplin film Modern Times
- Originally from the 1936 Charlie Chaplin film Modern Times
