I'm happy together.

Happy Together; The Turtles

Remember that gig where the client had asked for a few songs from the 1960’s? I had downloaded a few high-profile 1960’s tracks onto my iPod to learn for the gig. This is one of them.

“Happy Together”, sung by The Turtles, arrived on the scene in spring of 1967. It knocked The Beatles’ “Penny Lane” out of the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100, and stayed there for three weeks. Although a few more of their songs made it onto the Billboard, only “Happy Together” made it all the way to the top.

Many:

Movie directors have included this song on their film sountrack.

Television show episodes have made reference to this song.

Television commercials have built their ads around this song.

Musical artists like Donny Osmond, The Captain and Tennille, The Nylons and Blue Meanies, have recorded their own version of the song.

BMI, a US performing rights organization, named The Turtles’ recording of “Happy Together” as the forty-fourth most performed song during 20^th century American radio airplay, siting five million performances. This puts it in the same league as “Yesterday” by the Beatles and “Mrs. Robinson” by Simon and Garfunkel.

All musical aspects of this song make it one for the ages. The composer put together a fine work. I’ve said before that I rarely take notice of lyrics. But the distinct and remarkable rhythmic sequence in the opening measures of the melody brought the words to my attention. And … Oh, my.

You know, I don’t think that I have ever seen a more selfish, one-sided love song. It starts from the top:

Imagine me and you…

Didn’t we learn from our teachers that we refer to ourselves last? If one sang about his or her love for someone else, wouldn’t he or she start with the one that he or she loves?

If I should call you up, invest a dime

And you say you belong to me and ease my mind…

And how ‘bout these:

I can’t see me lovin’ nobody but you…

When you’re with me, baby, the skies’ll be blue…

The only one for me is you…

Boy, I tell you, how nice for him, huh? I mean, the only consideration he, presumably he, gives to her is that he asks her to imagine him and her. Actually, he tells her to imagine him and her.

It’s a nice song, though.

By the way, How is the weather?

My wallet is leather.

I want to see Heather.

My cap has a feather.

Credits: To The Beatles, for “Penny Lane” and “Yesterday”. Great tunes, boys.