10 Great Rock Songs About Happiness

Feature Photo: Photo by Austin Schmid

Rock and roll has given us plenty of songs about heartbreak, anger, loneliness, and trouble, but sometimes it simply feels good to hear a song about being happy. The 10 tracks on this list come from very different eras and styles, from The Beach Boys and The Beatles to The Rolling Stones, R.E.M., Three Dog Night, and Joe Perry. Some celebrate love, some celebrate life, and a few just sound like happiness coming through the speakers.

# 10 – “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy” – Blood, Sweat & Tears

Blood, Sweat & Tears turned Brenda Holloway’s 1967 Motown song “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy” into one of the biggest records of the band’s career. Their version appeared on the 1968 album Blood, Sweat & Tears and became a No. 2 Billboard Hot 100 hit in 1969, with David Clayton-Thomas delivering a vocal that moves from gratitude to absolute celebration. Written by Brenda Holloway, Patrice Holloway, Frank Wilson, and Berry Gordy Jr., the song earns its place here for one simple reason: few records sound more genuinely thankful to have someone special in your life.

Read More: Top 10 Blood, Sweat & Tears Songs

# 9 – “Love, Peace and Happiness” – The Chambers Brothers

Love Peace & Happiness / Live at Bill Graham's

The Chambers Brothers put the message right in the title with “Love, Peace and Happiness,” recorded for their 1969 double album Love, Peace & Happiness/Live at Bill Graham’s Fillmore East and released as a single in 1970. The band had already made its mark with the psychedelic soul classic “Time Has Come Today,” but this track leans into a more direct message of optimism and togetherness. The groove is loose, the chorus is impossible to misunderstand, and the combination of soul, rock, gospel, and psychedelia makes happiness sound less like a quiet feeling and more like something a whole room should be shouting together.

# 8 – “I’ll Do Happiness” – Joe Perry

Sweetzerland Manifesto Mkii - Opaque Purple

Joe Perry’s “I’ll Do Happiness,” from his 2018 solo album Sweetzerland Manifesto, features the great Terry Reid on lead vocals and Zak Starkey on drums. That distinction matters because this is not Perry suddenly turning into a cheerful pop singer; it is a tough, bluesy rock track built around Reid’s weathered voice and Perry’s guitar. The song’s central idea is wonderfully uncomplicated: love can hurt, life can get messy, but given the choice, the narrator is going to choose happiness. Coming from musicians better known for grit than sunshine, that makes the song even more fun.

# 7 – “Shiny Happy People” – R.E.M.

Out Of Time (25th Anniversary Edition) [LP]

R.E.M.’s “Shiny Happy People,” from the 1991 album Out of Time, may be one of the strangest happiness songs ever to become a major hit. Michael Stipe later described it as a deliberately fruity, bubblegum-type song, and Kate Pierson of The B-52s adds the perfect guest vocal to its exaggerated brightness. Some longtime R.E.M. fans have never known what to make of it, but that almost makes the record more interesting. Whatever irony may sit beneath the surface, the guitars, strings, vocals, and chorus sound relentlessly cheerful, which is enough to earn it a spot on this list.

Read More: Top 10 R.E.M. Songs

# 6 – “Happy Together” – The Turtles

The Turtles’ “Happy Together,” written by Garry Bonner and Alan Gordon, became the band’s only No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1967. What makes the song especially interesting is that the happiness exists partly in the narrator’s imagination: the opening words begin with him imagining the two of them together. That slight uncertainty underneath the enormous chorus keeps the song from becoming too sugary. Once Howard Kaylan and the band reach that famous refrain, though, none of that matters very much. For three minutes, “Happy Together” sounds exactly like its title.

Read More: Top 10 Songs From The Turtles

# 5 – “I’m Happy Just to Dance with You” – The Beatles

“I’m Happy Just to Dance with You,” from The Beatles’ 1964 album and film A Hard Day’s Night, gives George Harrison one of his early lead-vocal spotlights. Credited to Lennon-McCartney and written for Harrison to sing, the song takes one of the simplest romantic ideas imaginable and refuses to complicate it: being close enough to dance with someone is already enough. The arrangement moves quickly, Harrison sounds young and completely sincere, and the record captures the uncomplicated rush that made so much early Beatles music irresistible.

# 4 – “Ev’rybody’s Gonna Be Happy” – The Kinks

Ray Davies wrote “Ev’rybody’s Gonna Be Happy” during The Kinks’ first great run of British singles, and the band released it in 1965 as the follow-up to “Tired of Waiting for You.” It reached No. 17 in the UK, a disappointment by the extraordinary chart standards The Kinks had established, but the record itself remains a wonderfully energetic piece of early British rock and roll. The rhythm is punchy, the vocal is playful, and the title keeps repeating the promise until resistance seems pointless: everybody really is going to be happy.

# 3 – “Happy” – The Rolling Stones

We couldn’t leave Keith Richards off this list, no way. “Happy,” from The Rolling Stones’ 1972 album Exile on Main St., was written primarily by Richards and came together quickly during the band’s sessions at Villa Nellcôte in France. Richards handles the lead vocal and much of the basic instrumentation, with producer Jimmy Miller on drums, and the result has the loose, ragged energy that makes Exile so great. The lyrics are not about walking around smiling all day; Richards runs through the things that do not satisfy him before landing on the one thing he says he needs to keep him happy. It is messy, loud, and perfectly Keith.

# 2 – “Joy to the World” – Three Dog Night

Three Dog Night’s “Joy to the World,” written by Hoyt Axton and included on the 1970 album Naturally, became one of the biggest singles of 1971. It spent six weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and finished as Billboard’s top pop single of the year. The opening line about Jeremiah the bullfrog may not make much sense, but it does not have to. Once the band hits the chorus, “Joy to the World” becomes exactly what its title promises: a huge communal sing-along about enjoying life and spreading some joy around.

# 1 – “Good Vibrations” – The Beach Boys

“Good Vibrations” takes the top spot because Brian Wilson managed to turn a feeling into a record. Released in October 1966, composed and produced by Wilson with lyrics by Mike Love, the Beach Boys single reached No. 1 in both the United States and the United Kingdom. Its shifting sections, layered vocals, unusual instrumentation, and Carl Wilson’s lead vocal made it one of the most ambitious pop recordings of its time, but none of that technical achievement gets in the way of the basic emotion. From the opening seconds, “Good Vibrations” simply feels good, and more than half a century later it still sounds like happiness coming out of a radio.

Read More: Top 10 Beach Boys Songs