Top Ten Instrumentals: I Want to Be Happy (#1)

Tweet

And so another month closes, taking with it songs that are instrumental in not having words in the recording. We’ve had a few songs this month that were instrumentals to begin with, then someone later wrote lyrics to the melody. That’s not that unusual: my all-time favorite pop song, “It’s All in the Game” by Tommy Edwards, began life as an instrumental (“Melody in A Major” by future vice president Charles Dawes). Not this one. It was a song that lost its lyrics for this version. Here’s the top of the heap for me. #1: I Want to Be Happy - Homer & Jethro No, no, Nanette, this isn’t funny…and it’s not country. I’ve often said that Homer & Jethro’s greatest joke was that they were two jazz musicians who masqueraded as country singers for 40 years. They started as a jazz/swing outfit on the radio in Knoxville in the 1930s (a band called the Stringdusters). A “joke” version of a popular song sung backstage was repeated onstage during the Mid-Day Merry Go Round in 1939, and “Homer & Jethro” were born. Ask anyone in music, and they’ll tell you what stunning musicians these guys were. This song will prove it. “I Want to Be Happy” dates to 1924 or so, and the play No, No, Nanette. And, as I said, it had lyrics then (“I want to be happy, but I can’t be happy ‘til I make you happy too”). Not on this recording. Nobody could keep up with the pace that Jethro Burns set on the mandolin…well, nobody except his partner in crime, Homer Haynes. Chet Atkins, who was Jethro’s brother-in-law (they were married to identical twins sisters [and, when asked how they told them apart, Jethro replied, “We never try” ]), wrote on the liner notes of this album, “Who knew they could play such exciting jazz.” Everybody “knew,” because it was one of the worst-kept secrets in music. However, they never made it so blatantly obvious until this album…and, in the process, left a lot of people’s chins on the floor. They lived up to the title of the album: they played it straight, and in a memorable fashion. Thanks for reading. I Want to Be Happy Written by Vincent Youmans and Irving Caesar Recorded by Homer & Jethro From Playing It Straight, 1962 Happy!