"Get Happy" is a song composed by Harold Arlen, with lyrics written by Ted Koehler. It echoes themes of a Christian evangelical revivalist meeting song.
"Get Happy" | |
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Song by Ruth Etting | |
Songwriter(s) | Ted Koehler |
Composer(s) | Harold Arlen |
It was the first song they wrote together, and was introduced by Ruth Etting[citation needed] in The Nine-Fifteen Revue in 1930.[1]
Influenced by the Get Happy tradition, it is most associated with Judy Garland, who performed it in her last MGM film Summer Stock (1950) and in live concert performances throughout the rest of her life. The versions from Summer Stock finished at #61 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema. An instrumental, hot jazz arrangement of the song, performed by Abe Lyman's Brunswick Recording Orchestra, served as the original theme music for Warner Bros.' Merrie Melodies cartoons from 1931 to 1933.
The song lyrics incorporate the title phrase in the longer phrase "Come on, get happy", but it should not be confused with the Partridge Family theme song "C'mon Get Happy".
English musician Elvis Costello named his fourth studio album, released in 1980, after the song.[2]
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