"Let's get happy!"

[muckefuck]

Question from spookyfruit last night: What is the most cheerful song in the world?

My immediate response was "Walking on Sunshine". But, later in the conversation, he clarified that it had to be the most cheerful song in every context. Any song about the joys of being in love is not at all cheerful when your love life is in tatters. That wipes out about 99% of all carefree pop right there, doesn't it? I still made a good case for one-hit wonders, though. How can you be 100% cheerful listening to the Cocteau Twins' "Carolyn's Fingers" is you're inevitably reminded of "Blue Bell Knoll" or "Blood Bitch"? (When I say "you", I mean "me" of course.) You'd be better off with Aqua, which knows no nuance or variety.

After discarding dozens of possibilities, I finally settled on "Skokian"--not necessarily the Brave Combo version, though you can make a case for it being the best. As someone on the Web sez:

""Skokian" is a truly perfect song that has been done and redone by any number of bands. Although everyone has heard the song, not everyone remembers it. (It's popular in movie soundtracks and at weddings, but not on radio stations.)

According to another blurb, it's actually based on a Zulu song, which explains all the guff about "happy happy Africa".

Of course, if even mention of Africa makes you think of Rwanda, Congo, and Idi Amin, then this song isn't going to work either. So can I have some further nominees, please?

Comments

[princeofcairo.livejournal.com]

It's "When the Saints Come Marching In," or some other Dixieland swing. If it made black people happy in the 1920s, it's industrial-strength cheerful; it's cheerful that grew up under Krypton's high gravity and red sun and is super-cheerful now.

And if you're an atheist, and therefore don't believe in the Saints or their inevitable Marching, then you're dead to Joy and should be listening to depressing emo music anyhow.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

What if you're a very sinful Christian and you feel that the chances you'll be in that number are slim and none and Slim just walked out the door?

[lhn.livejournal.com]

Assume that the Saints are the Latter-Day kind, so that there's a decent chance you'll be in that number via postmortem baptism?