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"Happy Together"
Single by The Turtles
from the album Happy Together
B-side	"Like the Seasons"
Released	March 1967 (March 1967)
Genre	Psychedelic pop pop rock
Length	2:50
Label	White Whale
Songwriter(s)	Alan Gordon Garry Bonner
Producer(s)	Joe Wissert
The Turtles singles chronology
"Can I Get to Know You Better" (1966) "Happy Together" (1967) "She'd Rather Be with Me" (1967)

"Happy Together" is a song by American rock band the Turtles from their third studio album Happy Together (1967). The song was written by Garry Bonner and Alan Gordon, arranged by Chip Douglas, and produced by Joe Wissert.

Released as a single in February 1967, the song knocked the Beatles' "Penny Lane" out of the number one slot on the US Billboard Hot 100 and remained atop the chart for three weeks. It was the group's only chart-topper in the United States. "Happy Together" also reached number 12 on the UK Singles Chart in April 1967 and number 2 on the Canadian Top Singles chart in Canada.

Background

The song was written by Garry Bonner and Alan Gordon, former members of the Magicians. It had been rejected a dozen times before it was offered to the Turtles, and the demo acetate was worn out.

The song was arranged by Chip Douglas. Turtles singer Mark Volman said, “Chip was, besides being a really fine bass player and excellent singer, also a great arranger, who did most of the arrangements on ‘Happy Together.’ He is very instrumental in what would be thought of as the production.”

Composition

"Happy Together" was originally published in the key of E minor in common time with a tempo of 120 beats per minute. Kaylan's vocals span from B₃ to F#₅ in the song.

Critical reception

Denise Sullivan of Allmusic called the song "serious, Beatles/Beach Boys conceptual pop" with a "sparse, acoustic guitar and handclap arrangement". She felt that the Turtles had combined their "pop, folk, psychedelia, and Zombies-style harmony expertise into one song", and noted the song's contradiction of being a "rock & roll song with a martial beat" but which came very close to "bubblegum" pop (yet "rises above it"). She concluded that the song is "pop perfection" and "a most sublime slice of pop heaven".

Personnel

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• Howard Kaylan – lead vocals
• Mark Volman – vocals
• Al Nichol – lead guitar, piano, backing vocals
• Jim Tucker – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
• Chip Douglas – bass guitar, orchestra arrangement, backing vocals
• John Barbata – drums, percussion

Additional personnel

• Andy Cahan – organ
• Alan Gordon – songwriting
• Gary Bonner – songwriting

Charts

Certifications

In popular culture

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Film

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The song has been featured in many movies, including:

• In the Heat of the Night (1967)
• Cool Hand Luke (1967)
• Valley of the Dolls (1967)
• The Graduate (1967)
• The Wild Bunch (1969)
• The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart (1970)
• The Twelve Chairs (1970)
• Deliverance (1972)
• The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
• Soylent Green (1973)
• Westworld (1973)
• Blazing Saddles (1974)
• The Towering Inferno (1974)
• Nashville (1975)
• The Gauntlet (1977)
• More American Graffiti (1979)
• Altered States (1980)
• Time Bandits (1981)
• Taps (1981)
• The Thing (1982)
• This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
• Heart Like a Wheel (1984)
• Making Mr. Right (1987)
• Ernest Goes to Camp (1987)
• The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
• Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)
• Happy Together (1989)
• Kindergarten Cop (1990)
• The Doors (1991)
• The Last Boy Scout (1991)
• Wayne's World (1992)
• Dazed and Confused (1993)
• Airheads (1994)
• Muriel's Wedding (1994)
• Empire Records (1995)
• Heat (1995)
• The Full Monty (1997)
• Happy Together (1997)
• Soldier (1998)
• High Fidelity (2000)
• Sorted (2000)
• Dude, Where's My Car? (2000)
• Bubble Boy (2001)
• Rock Star (2001)
• Adaptation. (2002)
• Cherish (2002)
• S1m0ne (2002)
• Freaky Friday (2003; featured both the Turtles version and a cover by Simple Plan)
• Ma Mère (2004)
• Imagine Me & You (2005)
• V for Vendetta (2005)
• Blindsight (2006 documentary)
• Blood Diamond (2006)
• The Simpsons Movie (2007)
• 27 Dresses (2008)
• The Rocker (2008)
• Stepfather (2009)
• Haeundae Tsunami (2009)
• Some Velvet Morning (2013)
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)
• Minions (2015)
• 45 Years (2015)

Frank Alamo's French cover of the song was featured in the 2010 movie Get Him to the Greek and the Halloween TV special Scared Shrekless. The original song was featured in one of the trailers for the 2013 film The Great Gatsby and for the 2019 film Pokémon Detective Pikachu.

Television

The song has been used in episodes of:

• The Simpsons (such as "The Way We Weren't" and "Trilogy of Error")
• The Wonder Years (multiple episodes)
• The Brady Bunch Variety Hour
• That '70s Show (sung by the cast)
• The Muppet Show (sung by guest star Florence Henderson with a set of Muppet Monsters and Frackles)
• Oz
• Cupid (sung by Lisa Loeb)
• Scrubs
• ER
• America's Funniest Home Videos
• The Big Bang Theory
• My Name Is Earl episode "Faked His Own Death"
• Daldalita (series finale)
• Two and a Half Men (series finale)
• You, Me and the Apocalypse (series finale)
• The Crazy Ones
• The Blacklist (Series 2 Episode 14)
• Theme song for Happy Together (2018 TV series), starring Damon Wayans Jr. and Amber Stevens
• The Umbrella Academy (TV series) (sung by Gerard Way)
• Masters of Sex, at the ending of episode S04E02
• 12 Monkeys (TV series), (season 4, Episode "45 RPM", Olivia's backstory)

A cover of the song was the theme song for the short-lived sitcom Live-In.

It was also performed on the show American Idol on February 19, 2008, by David Cook, and on February 20, 2008, by Brooke White: both performances were released as live singles on the iTunes Store in 2008. On May 5, 2011, it was sung in a group performance by the top 5 contestants on the show's tenth season. On January 21, 2015, the song was featured on the TV series Stalker arranged and performed by the band SPiN. On Season 4, Episode 7 of the Showtime show Billions aired on April 28th, 2019, it was mentioned by Taylor Mason that the song is not in fact a love song, but rather a song about a relationship that never actually happens - the key to unlocking this realization being the word "imagine" in the very beginning.

Sport

"Happy Together" is the official song of football club Melbourne City FC. The song is also played at Belmont University Men's Basketball home games during a 2nd half timeout break.

Books

In Stephen King's novel Gerald's Game, the psychotic burglar, necrophile, and cannibal Raymond Andrew Joubert is described to the protagonist Jessie Burlingame as singing this song in the back of a police cruiser after being apprehended breaking into a mausoleum.

Cover versions

"Happy Together" has been covered by artists as diverse as Hugh Montenegro (US AC #29, 1969), Tony Orlando and Dawn (US #79, 1972), T.G. Sheppard (who would take his version into the country Top 10 in early 1979), the Nylons (US #75, AC #16, 1987), and the most successful cover by Captain & Tennille (US #53, AC #27, 1980), Jason Donovan had the most successful cover version in the UK reaching #10.

Non-charting versions include those by Mel Tormé, the Piano Guys, Weezer, Petula Clark, Simple Plan, Caterina Valente, the Dollyrots, Blue Meanies, Donny Osmond, Odyssey, Tahiti 80, Filter, Flobots, Tally Hall, and Johnny Panic whose version samples the original. Frank Alamo covered the song in 1967 in a French version entitled "Heureux Tous Les Deux (Happy Together)". In 1967 the Quelli covered the song in an Italian version entitled "Per vivere insieme". Spanish flamenco duo Las Grecas made a cover called "Los dos tan felices" (We both so happy) in their album "Tercer Album" (1976) and there is also a Spanish cover, sung by Roberto Jordán, called "Juntos y Felices". In 1999, BMI named "Happy Together", with approximately five million performances on American radio, the 44th most-performed song in the United States of the 20th century, placing it in the same league as "Yesterday" by the Beatles and "Mrs. Robinson" by Simon and Garfunkel. Frank Zappa's performance on Fillmore East – June 1971 included Turtles vocalists Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman and bassist Jim Pons.

Florence Henderson performed the song in season 1 of The Muppet Show in 1976. Miley Cyrus covered the song on the Backyard Sessions YouTube series.

Norwegian comedy group Prima Vera recorded a version with altered lyrics titled "Så Lykkelig I Sverige" (So Happy in Sweden) from their album Brakara (1978).

Kaylan and Volman also did a reggae remake of the song for the last Flo & Eddie album Rock Steady with Flo & Eddie (1981).

Hugo Montenegro's cover version was released as a single in 1969 from his album Good Vibrations, and reached number 29 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart.

The song has been covered by B. E. Taylor for his album, Love Never Fails (2006).

The song has also been sung by the Red Army Choir and the Leningrad Cowboys.

In 2007 the song was used as a sample on the song "Ooh Ooh Baby" from Britney Spears' album Blackout.

In 2014, Wim Leys, a Belgian Flemish Singer released a Dutch version: Vannacht Zijn We Samen on his Album Peper & Zout (Pepper & Salt).

In 2002 and 2018, American rock band Weezer performed a cover version of the song live at several of their concerts. The cover was described by Doug MacCash of The Times-Picayune as "fierce yet faithful", taking "that chunk of 50-year-old bubblegum and chew it into grungy rock n roll glory". In January 2019, the song was included on their surprise cover album

In 2019, American artists Gerard Way and Ray Toro recorded a cover version for the Netflix Original series The Umbrella Academy.

Copyright lawsuit

Flo & Eddie, legal successors to the Turtles, filed a lawsuit in the New York Court of Appeals against Sirius XM Radio to establish common law copyright on their original recording of "Happy Together." As the song was recorded in 1967, five years before federal sound copyright was established, the group sought to establish that such recordings were covered under common law copyright, a nebulous form of copyright held at the state level, in the hopes of earning royalties from Sirius XM (as they did not write the song, they could only receive performance royalties). The Court of Appeals had previously ruled that such a common law copyright may exist for the sale of recordings in New York in the 2005 ruling Capitol Records, Inc. v. Naxos of America, Inc..

On December 20, 2016, the Court ruled that no such common law copyright exists in New York for public performances of a sound recording, and that Flo & Eddie could not claim royalties.

References

1. ^ Bronson, Fred (2003). The Billboard Book of #1 Hits, 5th Edition (Billboard Publications), page 221.
2. Wayne Wadhams, David Nathan (2001). Inside the Hits. Berklee Press, p. 254. ISBN 0-634-01430-7.
3. CD booklet to The Turtles Anthology: Solid Zinc (Rhino, 2002), p. 19.
4. "The Turtles - Happy Together". Songbpm.com. Retrieved November 3, 2018. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
5. "The Turtles "Happy Together" Sheet Music in E Minor". Musicnotes.com. Retrieved November 3, 2018. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
6. "Happy Together Sheet Music by The Turtles (non-transposable)". sheetmusicnow.com. Retrieved May 4, 2019. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
7. Sullivan, Denise. "The Turtles - Happy Together - Song Review". Allmusic. Retrieved September 21, 2018. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
8. "RPM Weekly Top Singles - April 8, 1967 (Volume 7, No. 6)". Library and Archives Canada. RPM Weekly (archived). April 8, 1967. Retrieved August 30, 2018. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
9. "RPM Weekly Top Singles - April 1, 1967 (Volume 7, No. 5)". Library and Archives Canada. RPM Weekly (archived). April 1, 1967. Retrieved September 26, 2018. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
10. "The Irish Charts – Search Results – Happy Together". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved July 11, 2017.
11. "SA Charts 1965–March 1989". Retrieved 5 September 2018.
12. "Top 100 1967". top-source.info. Retrieved 8 September 2016.
13. Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-2002
14. "Cash Box Top 100 Singles". Cash Box. April 1, 1967. Retrieved May 12, 2018. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
15. "The RPM 100 Top Singles of 1967" (PDF). RPM. January 6, 1968. p. 5. Retrieved March 19, 2019. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
16. "Top 100 Hits of 1967/Top 100 Songs of 1967". Musicoutfitters.com. Retrieved 2016-09-30.
17. "CASH BOX Year-End Charts: 1967". Cash Box. December 23, 1967. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved April 30, 2018. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
18. id MUST BE PROVIDED for UK CERTIFICATION.
19. "American single certifications – Turtles – Happy Together". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved February 19, 2019.
20. ^ Bessman, Jim (April 26, 2003). "Words & Music". Billboard. p. 40. Retrieved March 1, 2017.
21. Potts, Kimberly (March 30, 2017). "The Big Bang Theory Recap: Fight Club". Vulture. Retrieved January 7, 2019. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
22. "Stalker Music - S1E13: "The News"". TuneFind.com. Retrieved 2016-09-30.
23. "Gerald's Game". StephenKing.com. Retrieved 2016-09-30.
24. https://www.google.es/#q=tercer+%C3%A1lbum+canciones&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAONgFuLSz9U3qMgxKCpPVkJia4lmJ1vp55YWZybrJ-YkleZaFefnpRcDAJ5XwxUxAAAA
25. "BMI Announces Top 100 Songs of the Century". BMI. December 13, 1999.
26. "Prima Vera - Brakara". Allmusic. Retrieved November 15, 2018. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
27. "Hugo Montenegro - Good Vibrations". Allmusic. Retrieved February 8, 2019. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
28. Hyatt, Wesley (1999). The Billboard Book of #1 Adult Contemporary Hits (Billboard Publications), page 66.
29. "Hugh Montenegro, His Orchestra and Chorus - Happy Together". Billboard. July 12, 1969. Retrieved October 6, 2018. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
30. "Love Never Fails - B.E. Taylor". betaylor.com. Retrieved January 5, 2019. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
31. MacCash, Doug (June 27, 2018). "Weezer and The Pixies were happy together in New Orleans". The Times-Picayune. Retrieved September 25, 2018. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
32. "Weezer Just Won #TBT By Releasing a Surprise Cover Album". vulture.com.
33. "Weezer - Weezer [Teal Album]". Allmusic. Retrieved January 30, 2019. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
34. Klepper, David (December 20, 2016). "OWNERS OF 1967 HIT SONG 'HAPPY TOGETHER' LOSE COPYRIGHT CASE". Associated Press. Archived from the original on December 21, 2016. Retrieved December 20, 2016. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

External links

• Allmusic.com Happy Together
• The Turtles Official website
• Singer Howard Kaylan's website
• Bonner-Gordon songs website
• Jason Donovan "Happy Together" (Official Video) on YouTube

v t e The Turtles
Howard Kaylan Mark Volman Al Nichol Jim Tucker Don Murray Chuck Portz Chip Douglas Joel Larson John Barbata Jim Pons John Seiter
Studio albums	It Ain't Me Babe You Baby Happy Together The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands Turtle Soup
Compilations	Golden Hits More Golden Hits Wooden Head
Singles	"It Ain't Me Babe" "Let Me Be" "You Baby" "Happy Together" "She'd Rather Be with Me" "You Know What I Mean" "She's My Girl" "Elenore" "You Showed Me" "Grim Reaper of Love" "Eve of Destruction"
Related articles	Discography Flo & Eddie My Dinner with Jimi "Christmas Is My Time of Year"
Category

• 1967 singles
• Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles
• 1967 songs
• The Turtles songs
• Hugo Montenegro songs
• T. G. Sheppard songs
• Petula Clark songs
• Caterina Valente songs
• Songs written by Alan Gordon (songwriter)