Happy Days Are Here Again


"Happy Days Are Here Again" is a song copyrighted in 1929 by Milton Ager and Jack Yellen and published on ASCAP by EMI Robbins Catalog, Inc. and Advanced Music Corp.. The song was recorded by Leo Reisman and His Orchestra, with Lou Levin, vocal, and was featured in the 1930 film Chasing Rainbows. The song concluded the picture, in what film historian Edwin Bradley described as a "pull-out-all-the-stops Technicolor finale, against a Great War Armistice show-within-a-show backdrop". This early example of two-strip Technicolor footage was, along with another Technicolor sequence, later cut from the 1931 re-edited release of the otherwise black-and-white film, and is believed to have been lost in the 1965 MGM vault fire.

In popular culture

Today, the song is usually remembered as the campaign song for Franklin Delano Roosevelt's successful 1932 presidential campaign. According to Time magazine, it gained prominence after a spontaneous decision by Roosevelt's advisers to play it at the 1932 Democratic National Convention, and went on to become the Democratic Party's "unofficial theme song for years to come". The song is also associated with the Repeal of Prohibition, which occurred shortly after Roosevelt's election where there were signs saying "Happy days are beer again" and so on.
Matthew Greenwald described the song as " true saloon standard, a Tin Pan Alley standard, and had been sung by virtually every interpreter since the 1940s. In a way, it's the pop version of "Auld Lang Syne".
The song is number 47 on the Recording Industry Association of America's list of "Songs of the Century".
, 76 commercially released albums include versions of the song. The song has appeared in over 80 films, including many from the 1930s.

Barbra Streisand version

Another popular recording was made by Barbra Streisand 33 years after the song's first release. While traditionally sung at a brisk pace, Streisand's performance is notable for its slow and expressive rendition.
On The Garry Moore Show, Streisand sang the song during the "That Wonderful Year" skit representing 1929. She performed it ironically as a millionaire who has just lost all of her money and enters a bar, giving the bartender her expensive jewelry in exchange for drinks.
Streisand first recorded the song in October 1962 at Columbia's NYC studio, some months before her first album sessions. This version, arranged and conducted by George Williams became Streisand's first commercial single in November 1962, with "When the Sun Comes Out" as a B-side. Only 500 copies of this single were pressed for the New York market, and no copies were sent to radio stations. This 1962 version was re-released as a single in March 1965 as part of the "Hall of Fame" series with the 1962 recording of "My Coloring Book".
Streisand re-recorded the song in January 1963 for her debut solo The Barbra Streisand Album.
Streisand sang the song opposite Judy Garland, who performed "Get Happy", during an October 1963 broadcast of The Judy Garland Show. The live performance of this medley was first included on Streisand's 1991 box set Just for the Record... and again on her 2002 Duets compilation album.
In June 1967, Streisand performed the song for over 135,000 people at Central Park, captured on the live concert album A Happening in Central Park; the track later appeared on the compilations Barbra Streisand's Greatest Hits and The Essential Barbra Streisand.
The song has become a signature part of Streisand's concert repertoire, and she has performed it live on numerous occasions; unique recordings appear on Live Concert at the Forum, One Voice, The Concert, , Live in Concert 2006, Back to Brooklyn, and The Music...The Mem'ries...The Magic!.

Other versions