I was thinking this would be an interesting topic and off the top of my head I came up with:
“I Don’t Like Mondays” - Boomtown Rats
“Hey Man Nice Shot” - Filter
“Day in the Life” - The Beatles
“Ohio” - Neil Young
Then it occured to me they all had to murder and/or sucide. How depressing.
So anyone have any others? Extra points if it’s about a HAPPY event for a change.
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot. Not happy.
There’s probably some in musical theatre. Sondheim’s score for Assassins comes to mind. Again, not happy. Some of it SOUNDS happy, but it isn’t of course.
“Blow Me A Kiss” Alice Cooper. It’s off the “Brutal Planet” album and it’s about Colombine.
Another one from the same CD is “Pick Up The Bones” which is about a man collecting his family’s body parts in, I think, Sarajavo. Alice had seen someone on CNN doing just that, putting the bones in an old pillowcase after a massacure.
Guess I don’t get those extra points.
Dream Theater’s “The Great Debate” is about the controversy over stem-cell research.
Don McLean’s Vincent, about Vincent van Gogh, and Eric Clapton’s Tears in Heaven, about his son.
Not happy either, but they’re the only songs that come to mind.
“Sunday Bloody Sunday”-U2
Definitely not happy.
Tie a yellow you-know-what ;j
Alice’s Restaurant had a happy ending. How many points do I get?
Liza by Loudon Wainwright III about his childhood friend, Liza Minelli.
Tonya’s Twirls, also by Wainwright, about Tonya Harding (and not what you might expect).
My Soul’s In Louisiana by Otis Taylor is based on the story of a lynching.
Someone Saved My Life Tonight, based on Elton John’s thoughts of suicide.
Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple, based on a fire they witnessed.
Killing Me Softly With His Song–Roberta Flack’s tribute to Don McLean. Not exactly happy, but nobody dies at the end.
Evita. She dies at the end (whoops, maybe I should use a spoiler box for that?)
Marie Provost by Nick Lowe
Hurricane by Bob Dylan
Creeque Alley by the Mamas and the Papas (Hey! No Murder or Suicide! And No one’s getting fat except Mama Cass!)
Rachel by Buddy and Julie Miller- also about Colombine.
“Hurricane” by Bob Dylan
The Weird AL parody of Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm (Tonya Harding & Nancy Kerrigan, the US spray-painter who got caned in Singapore, Lorraine Bobbitt)
Would The Illinois Enema Bandit be considered a happy event?
The Star Spangled Banner.
Mudshark by Frank Zappa.
So far? All of them. (Sorry, RealityChuck, I just can’t consider Liza Minelli a happpy event 
)
As in Marie Prevost, the terrific actress? Please tell me he doesn’t have her getting eaten by her dog, a la Kenneth Anger . . .
I can think of dozens of songs based on news events that are tragic. The challenge is to come up with songs based on happy events.
The only one I can come up with so far is:
"Right Here Right Now" - Jesus Jones (About the fall of the Berlin Wall.)
I saw the decade end
When it seemed the world could change
In the blink of an eye
Well, not a happy one, but Me and a Gun is about Tori Amos’ rape.