I’m happy to present today’s classic song of the day, “Happy.” No, not the 2013 tune by Pharrell Williams, from the Despicable Me soundtrack. This “Happy” was a single back in 1967 that was a minor hit for two different groups at more or less the same time.
Radio play and record sales were much different back in the ’60s. Back then, airplay was more or less a regional thing; a (typically AM) radio station in one city might choose to play the heck out of a given single, while that same single might be ignored in another city in another part of the country.
That situation led to the creation of regional hits—singles that got airplay (and resulting physical sales) in one or more parts of the country but not in others. That was the case for today’s classic song of the day, and why it was a moderate hit for two different groups—one from the west coast and one from the east.
“Happy” was written by Tony Michaels and Vinny Gormann. Tony and Vinny were pro songwriters who’d written or would write songs for the Shangra-Las, the Four Freshman, Reparata and Delrons, and a number of less-successful artists.
The first recording of “Happy” was by a group of high school kids from New Jersey called the Blades of Grass. They released their version of “Happy” as a single during the summer of 1967. It got a lot of airplay on radio stations in Pennsylvania, Missouri, and Wisconsin.
At about the same time, a group from Los Angeles called the Sunshine Company released a competing version of the song. This west coast version of “Happy” got a lot of airplay in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, New York, Arizona, and California (both in Los Angeles and San Diego).
Blades of Grass singer Bruce Ames remembers how it all went down:
“We were blindsided and shocked when we were informed that there was another version of ‘Happy.’ As I remember it, our managers were equally surprised and upset”
As a result of this unintended competition, neither version of “Happy” had the oomph to dominate the national charts. They essentially split the market more or less in two. The Blades of Grass’ east coast version only got to #87 on the Billboard Hot 100, while the Sunshine Company’s west coast version did moderately better, getting all the way to #50. Neither version got the national airplay necessary to climb the national Billboard and Cash Box charts. That’s a shame; the song is a quintessential piece of sunshine pop and both versions of the song, while different, are pretty good.
Both the Blades of Grass and the Sunshine Company are little known today, even though the latter had another minor hit with “Back on the Street Again” later in 1967. (They’re perhaps better known for making the first recording of a little ditty called “Up, Up and Away,” penned by some guy named Jimmy Webb.) Also little known is the song they both recorded; which version of “Happy,” if either, do you remember from your youth?
