Happy sounding songs that aren't really all that happy.

[Richland123]

Sunny by Bobby Hebb

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubvYQxTXO3U

"Sunny" is the name of a song written by Bobby Hebb. It is one of the most covered popular songs, with hundreds of versions released. BMI rates "Sunny" number 25 in its "Top 100 songs of the century."

Hebb wrote the song after November 22, 1963, the day U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated and Hebb's older brother Harold was stabbed to death outside a Nashville nightclub. Hebb was devastated by both events and many critics say that those events inspired the tune. According to Hebb, he wrote the song as an expression of a preference for a "sunny" disposition over a "lousy" disposition. Events influenced Hebb's songwriting, but his melody, crossing over into R&B (#3 on U.S. R&B chart) Country and Pop (#2 on U.S. Pop chart), together with the optimistic lyrics, came from the artist's desire to express that one should always "look at the bright side" - a direct quote from the author. Hebb has said about "Sunny":

"All my intentions were just to think of happier times – basically looking for a brighter day – because times were at a low tide.

[kevteop]

Originally Posted by catcauphonic

Also just about any Smiths/Morrissey song has morbid lyrics set to happy sounding music ... part of what makes them so brilliant

Yeah it was their trademark. They had the odd song that sounded sad but usually they were pretty upbeat, musically. Girlfriend In A Coma positively bounces along!

[Kirk Bryant]

I used to love her but I had to kill her. Pretty perky! not sure of the band or name of tune.

[Richland123]

Julie Brown - Homecoming Queen's Got A Gun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG3yGdQYwqg

[intheory]

Feelin Alright Joe Cocker

[wideload]

OK, dating myself. "Another Park, Another Sunday" by the Doobies. Never could reconcile the bouncy music with the "slit my wrists in the bathtub" lyrics.

[Blazer]

Originally Posted by Kirk Bryant

I used to love her but I had to kill her. Pretty perky! not sure of the band or name of tune.

That would be Guns N Roses, also Axl said that it was about his dog which had to be put to sleep.

[Misfit]

Last Caress - by The Misfit

[nortonrider]

99 Luftballoons - Nena
Grey Street - Dave Matthews Band

[Richland123]

Shannon - Henry Gross (a song written about the death of Beach Boy Carl Wilson's Irish setter)

[4dog]

Walkin on sunshine,, anybody that freakin happy is headed for a heartache blissfully unaware!

[Tony Flow MMMM]

Decemberists-soldering life,believe its about two gay soldiers.

Ambling madly all over the town
The call to arms, you likened to a whisper
I liken to a radio
You were a brickbat, a bowery tough, so rough
They culled you from a cartoon
Pulled out of your pantaloons

But you
My brother in arms
I'd rather I'd lose my limbs
Than let you come to harm

But you
My bombazine doll
The bullets may singe your skin
And the mortars may fall

Corporal Bradley of regiment five
And proud array standing by the bathing
Soldiers and the stevedores
We laid on the mattress and tumbled to sleep
Our eyes align, swaddled in our civies
Cradled in our dungarees

But I
I never felt so much life
Than tonight
Huddled in the trenches
Gazing on the battlefield
Our rifles blaze away
We blaze away
We blaze away
We blaze away

[Tony Flow MMMM]

Decemberists bus mall, many believe its about two close friends who are runaway prostitutes one of them had aids.

In matching blue raincoats our shoes were our showboats
We kicked around
From stairway to station we made a sensation
With the gadabout crowd
And oh, what a bargain, we're two easy targets
For the old men at the off tracks
Who paid in palaver and crumpled old dollars
Which we squirelled away
In our rat-trap hotel by the freeway
And we slept in Sundays

Your parents were anxious, your cool was contagious
At the old school
You left without leaving a note for your grieving
Sweet mother while your brother was so cruel
And here in the alleys your spirits will rally
As you learn quick to make a fast buck
In bathrooms and barrooms on dumpsters and heirlooms
We bit our tongues
Sucked our lips into our lungs 'cause we were falling
Such was our calling

And here in our hovel we fuse like a family
But I will not mourn for you
So take up your make-up and pocket your pills away
We're kings among runaways
On the bus mall
We're down on the bus mall

Among all the urchins and old Chinese merchants
At the old town
We reigned at the pool hall with one iron cue ball
And we never let the bastards get us down
And we laughed off the quick tricks, the old men with limp dicks
On the colonnades of the waterfront park
As four in the morning came on cold and boring
We huddled close
In the bus-stop enclosure enfolding
Our hands tightly holding

[Tony Flow MMMM]

Decemberists we both go down together.


Joint suicide.

[Silver Blues]

Bus Mall: very articulate lyrics. Like it.

--Silvie

[rojo412]

Excitable Boy - Warren Zevon... probably my fave example of such a song!

Not that it sounds terribly festive, but "Brick" by Ben Folds 5... it's about getting an abortion the day after Christmas.

[pkstone]

I agree with whoever said that almost every Steely Dan song fits this criterion. My favorite current example: The Last Mall. This is an extremely upbeat, happy-sounding groove about getting some last-minute shopping in before the Apocalypse.

Almost all reggae fits, too. There's an incredibly peppy tune called "Everyday Things Are Getting Worse."

[plankspanker13]

There seem to be an awful lot of folks who don't get that songs in minor keys, by definition, do not sound "happy," to the Western ear. Perhaps the OP might have spelled out what "happy-sounding' means, a bit more.

I could never get into "Love Song," from the Cure, because it is in Am, and sounds characteristically unhappy. Conversely, "Mint Car," by the same band, is a poppy excursion in D-major that is genuinely "happy," musically and lyrically. (See also "Friday I'm in Love.")

[pkstone]

Found the reggae tune on Das Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtG6ZLnQU8A

It's actually called "Time Hard". Listen to it and tell me you aren't bopping and snapping your fingers to that cheesy synth riff.

[JimK]

"Cuddly Toy"- The Monkees
...about a Hell's Angels gangbang?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkXFo43xuJo