Vocalist Ruth Etting introduced “Get Happy” in the Broadway show 9:15 Revue in 1929. The next year the song landed in the charts:
- Nat Shilkret and the Victor Orchestra (1930, Phil Dewey, Frank Luther, Leo O’Roarke, vocal, #6)
- Frankie Trumbauer and His Orchestra (1930, vocal, #15)
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“Get Happy” was the first collaboration of Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler. Meeting in the Remick publishing office in New York, Arlen played his untitled composition on the piano for Koehler. According to Edward Jablonski’s biography, Harold Arlen: Rhythm, Rainbows & Blues, Koehler realized that Arlen “...was a born musician, a superb pianist with a gift for composition.” After Arlen’s performance, Koehler began formulating lyrics for the song.
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The piece contained a repeated rhythmic figure that suggested the words “Get Happy” to Koehler, who knew that the phrase came from the African-American gospel music tradition and referred to the experience of receiving the Holy Spirit during a church service. The remainder of the lyrics to the tune unfolded as a sort of pseudo-spiritual.
Singer Ruth Etting was an acquaintance of Koehler, and when Etting heard the song she found a spot for it in her next show, the 9:15 Revue. Although the revue floundered, the tune gathered momentum, and Remick released the sheet music with Etting on the cover. (Oddly, she never recorded the tune).
Actress/vocalist Judy Garland revived “Get Happy” when she performed it as a striking song and dance number in the 1950 film Summer Stock, her last film for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Over time the tune’s appeal was more with musicians than singers who found it a challenge because of the many interval jumps and the tricky lyrics. The verse, which is seldom played anymore, is minor, and the chorus, major, creating a superbly dramatic effect. The sermon-like lyrics exclaim “pack up your troubles, c’mon get happy” and “the Lord is waiting to take your hand, we’re going to the promised land.”
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