Good Times = Happy Days

Today in Music History: August 18, 1979

Good times are synonymous with happy days. The ever popular tune 'Happy Days are Here Again' dates back to the Roarin' 20s (1929) when the song was copyrighted by Milton Ager (music) and Jack Yellen (lyrics). It was published by EMI Robbins Catalog, Inc./Advanced Music Corp. Today, the song is probably best remembered as the campaign song for Franklin Delano Roosevelt's successful 1932 presidential campaign. 

A Bit of Happy Days Trivia...

One of the most influential recordings of the song was Barbra Streisand's, made 33 years after its first recording. While the song is traditionally sung at a brisk pace, her recording is notable for how slowly and expressively she sings it. As of 2006, 76 commercially released albums include versions of the song. The song has appeared in over 80 films, including many from the 1930s and featured in a television sitcom from 1974 to 1984. 

Like happy days are here again, when you hear the phrase let the good times roll, thoughts focus on being happy and having a good time. For the latter, there is more than one song rendition by that title which might come to mind. The first could possibly be the jump blues song, 'Let the Good Times Roll', recorded in 1946 by Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five. A mid-tempo twelve-bar blues, the song became a blues standard and one of Jordan's best-known songs.

Ten years later, in 1956, Shirley and Lee recorded a song titled 'Let the Good Times Roll', which by September 8 had climbed to #20 in the US charts. It has been covered by an amazingly number of recording artists, each reaching his/her own height of success with the song.

Today's spotlight is on a portion of the phrase let the good times roll and a new song titled simply 'Good Times' but containing within its lyrics the line happy days are here again. We are now 20+ years into the future with the decadent era of disco dominating the scene.

 Chic The American band Chic regarded themselves as a rock band for the disco movement "that made good on hippie peace, love and freedom". They are known best for the commercially successful disco songs, including 'Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)' (1977), 'Everybody Dance' (1977), 'Le Freak' (1978), 'I Want Your Love' (1978), 'Good Times' (1979), and 'My Forbidden Lover' (1979).

Photo Credit: Harrison Funk

1979 Chic went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Good Times', the group's second US No.1, a No.5 hit in the UK.

Surprising is the impact 'Good Times' had on the music industry AFTER its run as a #1 hit. 

In the autumn of 1979, an aspiring music-industry entrepreneur named Sylvia Robinson decided that the underground club phenomenon known as "rapping" might just be worthy of commercial exploitation. Using the distinctive bass hook and long instrumental breaks of 'Good Times' as a backing track, the group that Robinson cobbled together, called The Sugarhill Gang, turned Chic's disco smash into 'Rapper's Delight', the first hit record in the history of hip hop. Source: history.com

And the music goes on beating to the rhythm of the changing times...