OK, we’ve done scary songs and sad songs and swoony songs. So what songs make you happy? What songs make you laugh?
Happy songs:
“Good Day Sunshine,” the most delightfully, inanely cheery record I can think of.
Joni Mitchell’s “Chelsea Morning”
“Little Bitty Pretty One”
The Kinks’ “Wonderboy” (“Day is as bright as your brightest dream/Night is as dark as you feel it ought to be”)
Steeleye Span’s “All Around My Hat”
Funny songs:
Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London” may be the funniest record ever to get mainstream airplay.
Queen’s “Somebody to Love,” which, despite its basically sad theme, is totally charming and funny.
a whole hell of a lot of TMBG (They Might Be Giants, for you poor uninitiated souls) songs fit the bill. the one running 'round my head right now is “Why Does the Sun Shine?”
For funny, no one has ever topped the Bonzo Dog Band (except maybe Spike Jones). Think of a musical Monty Python (several of their songs were written by ex-Bonzo Neil Innes.)
Some Bonzo songs:
My Pink Half of the Drainpipe
Ali Baba’s Camel
Monster Mash (the definitive version)
Jazz, Delicious Hot, Disgusting Cold
Look Out There’s a Monster Coming
Humanoid Boogie
Beautiful Zelda
I’m the Urban Spaceman
Tent
They recorded five albums:
Gorilla (“Dedicated to Kong who must have been a great bloke”)
The Donut in Granny’s Greenhouse (U.S. Title: Urban Spaceman)
Tadpoles
Keynsham
Let’s Make up and Be Friendly (a reunion album)
There have probably been at least ten compilation albums, too.
You can listen to their album “The Donut in Granny’s Greenhouse” in RealAudio via this link: http://www.rnsd.com/donut.ram
Oh oh! I love that song! I am not sure that it’s happy, tho–
I ain’t got no mother.
I ain’t got no brother.
I ain’t got no sister.
I ain’t got no daughter.
I’m a lonely boy.
I ain’t got no home.
Ho-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-Ho-ome!
Ho-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-Ho-ome!
I’m a lonely boy.
I ain’t got a home.
I will agree that Werewolves of London is a funny song. It is also my favorite song of all time. Warren Zevon has a lot of songs that are funny and happy and twisted and sick and sad, all at the same time. I guess that’s why we like him.
“Sweeping the Clouds Away”
“Painting the Clouds with Sunshine”
“Look for the Silver Lining”
Snappy ragtime numbers like “Everything is Hunky-Dory Down in Honky-Tonky Town,” “Oh! Oh! Mother, I’m Wild!” “I Don’t Care,” and almost anything by Geo. M. Cohan.
And of course I’m a sucker for Irving Berlin’s “Cohen Owes Me Ninety-Seven Dollars. . .”
Biggirl’s got it right: “I Can See Clearly Now”.
I’ve been in second gear too long, (“Theme from Friends” was my second choice) so it always seems written just for me.
I never thought of Bohemian Rhapsody as a “happy song” until I saw Wayne’s World. During a rather bleak period at my last job I was on my 45 minute daily commute to work, seething at my boss as usual. The song came on the radio and cheered my sorry ass right up.
I’m already a confessed E.L.O fan so another all time favorite cheer up is the Concerto for a Rainy Day side of Out Of The Blue. The songs are a good build up to Mr. Blue Sky which is every bit as insipidly perky as Katrina and the Wave’s Walking on Sunshine.
