Happiness comes from so many things, probably friends being the biggest source, the a feeling of moving towards achieving a goal. But for a quick fix, there’s chocolate, wine, and … MUSIC!
I personally love miserable music – all my favourite tracks are depressing – but I know it’s not good for me. If I listened to The Blue Nile and Del Amitri all the time I’d probably never get out of bed, or never leave the house. I’d be living on Solid Air….
And lots of cheerful music is twee or annoying. For example, here are three tracks which I find irritating (but which I would concede that some people find cheerful):
- Uptown Girl – Billy Joel
- Chain Reaction – Diana Ross
- Good Vibrations – The Beachboys
So it’s taken me a while to compile this list of happy music that’s also good, and I hope you like it; maybe you’ll discover some good new stuff from reading the list:
I have put it all into a youtube playlist so you can listen and enjoy:
Adventure of a lifetime – Coldplay
Afternoons and coffee spoons – Crash Test Dummies
Another day another ray of hope – Bill Nelson
All I wanna do – Sheryl Crow
All night long – Lionel Ritchie
Already gone – the Eagles
Back on the chain gang – the Pretenders
Bakerman – Laid Back
Batonga – Angelique Kidjo
Believe – Cher
Better be good to me – Tina Turner
Birdland – Weather Report
Big time – Peter Gabriel
Book of Brilliant Things – Simple Minds
Brick House – Commodores
Bright side of the road – Van Morrison
Body of water – Billy Bragg
Boy meets girl (Favourite shirts) – Haircut 100
Brown eyed girl – Van Morrison
Bulbs – Van Morrison
Call me maybe – Carly Rae Jepson
Can’t buy me love – The Beatles
Can’t get enough – Bad Company
Cleopatra’s Cat – The Spin Doctors
Cloudbusting – Kate Bush
Club at the end of the street – Elton John
Come up and see me tonight – Cockney Rebel
Comin’ back soon – the Crash Test Dummies
Cool Bar – Esteve
Could’ve told you before I met you – John Martyn
Dance wiv me – Dizzee Rascal
Dancing Queen – Abba
Drinking from the bottle – Tinie Tempah
Do your thing – Basement Jaxx
Don’t need the sun to shine – Gabrielle
Echo Beach – Martha and the Muffins
Ever loving woman – JJ Cale
Everyday is a winding road – Sheryl Crow
Every little thing she does is magic – the Police
Fantastic Day – Haircut 100
Fire at Midnight – Jethro Tull
Forever – Chris Brown
Friday I’m in love – the Cure
Get Lucky – Daft Punk
Getting away with it – Electronic
Goin’ crazy – Dizzee and Robbie
Happy – Pharrell Williams
Heartbeat – Bad Company
Hoedown – Caravan
Human – the Killers
I’m a believer – The Monkees
I’m Alive – Jackson Browne
I’m coming after you – Owl City
Inbetween days – The Cure
In the summertime – Mungo Jerry
In the garden – Van Morrison
Jet Airliner – Steve Miller Band
Just now – John Martyn
Keep your shades on – Alabama 3
Ketchup song – Las Ketchup
Kids – MGMT
Le Freak – Chic
Learning to fly – Tom Petty
Let me entertain you – Robbie Williams
Little talks – Of monsters and men
Listen Here – Eddie Harris
Love come down – Evelyn Champagne King
Love Shack – The B52s
Mama don’t – JJ Cale
Me and Julio down by the school yard – Paul Simon
Mellow – Elton John
Midday – Yusuf
Middle of the road – the Pretenders
Miss U Less – Faithless
Mister Magic – Grover Washington
More than a feeling – Boston
Morning Fog – Kate Bush
Move on up – Richard Elliott
New Shoes – Paolo Nutini
No work today – Chris Rea
On Broadway – George Benson
On the beach – Chris Rea
One Step Beyond – Madness
Only the good die young – Billy Joel
Parklife – Blur
Peg – Steely Dan
Pressure – Stereo MCs
Propane Nightmares – Pendulum
Queen Bee – Middle of the Road
Rainforest Serenade – The It
Reasons to be cheerful, part 3 – Ian Dury
Real Real Gone – Van Morrison
Resurrection shuffle – Ashton Gardner & Dyke
Saxon Street – Ezio
Set adrift on memory bliss – PM Dawn
Sex Bomb – Tom Jones
Slow turning – John Hiatt
Snoopy’s search for the Red Baron – Billy Cobham
Staple it together – Jack Johnson
Sultans of Swing – Dire Straits
Summer – Calvin Harris
Summertime – DJ Jazzy Jeff
Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynyrd
Taking my baby up town – Joan Armatrading
Tche Tche – Angelique Kidjo
The boys are back in town – Thin Lizzy
The boys of summer – Don Henley
The in-crowd – Ramsay Lewis
The Real Life – John Mellencamp
The sidewinder – Lee Morgan
There it is – Shalamar
Treat – Santana
Waiting on a friend – The Rolling Stones
Wake me up – Avicii
Wake up and make love with me – Ian Dury
Walk through the world – Marc Cohn
Walking on sunshine – Katrina and the waves
What’d I say – Ray Charles
When the world is running down – the Police
Who – Richard Elliot
Working with fire and steel – China Crisis
World in motion – England New Order
Year of the cat – Al Stewart
You ain’t seen nothing yet – BTO
You can call me Al – Paul Simon
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What did I miss??
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So now, the next thing to do is make a playlist of the uplifting stuff that you like and put it on when you get up – you’ll start the day feeling brilliant and that roll will continue…..
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Onwards and very much upwards!
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CC
Happy-Pharrell Williams. I hope for all of us to be happy even for a moment when we listen or remember just one one word . HAPPINESS
When the day comes – Nico & Vinz
So many goodies on here.
Definitely agree with The Traveling Wilburys. I would add “Get Together” by The Youngbloods and “Wah-Wah” by George Harrison.
Good Morning, Stronger, or Overcomer, all by Mandisa
I’m on a High by Duncan Sheik
‘Philadelphia Freedom’ and ‘Are You Ready For Love?’ both by Elton John!
I wanna dance with somebody by Whitney Houston
great choice – though I always feel a twinge of sadness that she isn’t still with us – she was so young and vibrant when she sang this, little knowing what was just around the corner….
Can’t Stop the Feeling by Justin Timberlake – can’t help but start dancing!
I love The Traveling Wilburys End of the Line.
oh yes! in fact EVERYTHING by them!! Bob and Tom is already heaven even before you add the others…..
Ain’t no moutain high enough – Diana Ross
Happy Pharrell Williams , i think is a good song for findings happiness. Thanks