For millennials, this one will be far too on-the-nose. For baby boomers like me, who stopped listening to commercial radio and video some time in the 90s, this could not be more perfect. The cool, jazz-inflected groove and old-school soul vocals make this song feel like a homecoming of sorts.
I hereby apologize to all millennials for straying outside my lane. You know us older drivers.
Here's Pharrell Williams and a cast of luminaries with "Happy".
Because I'm old and I don't find it that relatable, I don't pay attention to current popular music. So, naturally, I missed the most infectious slice of R and B to come along since Marvin Gaye last charted.
While I acknowledge that the verses are somewhat like Gaye's "Got To Give It Up" in terms of their backbeat, and their light, somewhat jazzy articulation, there's not enough concrete similarity to justify a lawsuit.
Gaye's 1965 hit, "Ain't That Peculiar" has also been alleged to be a source for this song, but that claim is even more ludicrous.
For most folks, all it takes to declare that songs "sound alike" is for the songs to be in the same key (See Creedence's "Green River", The Hollies' "Long Cool Woman", and Dwight Twilley Band's "I'm On Fire"). And all it takes to force songs into the same key is some software.
Yes, there's a version of this out there somewhere that's been forced into the key of E, just to make the case for plagiarism.
Here come bad news
Talkin' this and that
Anyway, here, for the consideration of old people everywhere (but certainly not as old as my parents), is Pharrell Williams with my current obsession, "Happy".
