The Current

Great Music Lives Here ®
Listener-Supported Music
Donate Now
Coffee Break

9:30 Coffee Break: International Happy Day

by Jill Riley and Sean McPherson

March 20, 2015

Ben Eine - Smiley Faces
Ben Eine - The Strangest Week : Smiley Faces / Acid House Faces - Hackney Road / Diss Street, London E2
Bob Bob via Flickr - Creative Commons

Pharrell Williams has teamed up with the United Nations on a project called International Happy Day. The event is designed to raise awareness of climate change issues ahead of the UN's conference on the subject in Paris this December.

Music fans the world over have been invited to participate in a Global Happy Party by uploading selfies that will be combined into a massive animated GIF; the selfies will be used to create a music video to Pharrell's big hit, "Happy."

Now certainly Pharrell's song is likely to put a smile on your face, but it got us thinking about other songs that are about being happy.

So for today's 9:30 Coffee Break — with all respect to Pharrell Williams — what other songs about being happy would you like to hear? Send us your requests.

Songs Played


Al Green - "Love and Happiness"
Buzzcocks - "Everybody's Happy Nowadays"
Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins - "Happy"
The Staple Singers - "Heavy Makes You Happy (Sha-Na-Boom)"
Cloud Cult - "Happy Hippo"
The Turtles - "Happy Together"
The Kinks - "Ev'rybody's Gonna Be Happy"

Do you deserve a Coffee Break? Jill and Steve think you do and want to bring treats from Gigi's Café to your workplace. Let us know why you'd like a Coffee Break.