Shades of Blue – Oh! How Happy

This song brings back memories. It was released in 1966, but I heard it first in 1985 when I graduated and life was great…so it’s a ’60s song that reminds me of 1985. It was prom time, and after we left, with my white tuxedo with tails and a purple cummerbund, this came on the radio.  It will forever be linked to that moment in time for me. 

There’s a certain kind of record that arrives like a grinning stranger at your doorstep, all sunshine and tambourines and no agenda. This was written by the great Edwin Starr. This song is pure pop joy with a Motown sound. When he wrote this song, Starr was working for a Detroit record label that was eventually bought out by Motown. The song peaked at #12 on the Billboard 100 in 1966.

It doesn’t mess around. It goes straight to the chorus, like the song can’t wait to get to the part that matters. The lead vocal is flanked by a chorus of voices that sound like the world’s friendliest pep squad… cheering on a romance that actually worked out for once.

This was the only top ten hit for The Shades of Blue, who were a white Soul band from Detroit. The song came at a time when American Soul music influenced the British music industry, creating a genré called Northern Soul.

The lyrics won’t remind you of Bob Dylan or John Prine, but that doesn’t matter. They’d go on to release more singles, but none stuck like this one. Oh! How Happy is their legacy, and what a legacy to have: a song that never tries to be cool, only kind.

Oh How Happy

Do roo, do roo, do roo, do roo do… 

Oh how happy (you have made me)
Oh how happy (you have made me)
I have kissed your lips
A thousand times
And more times than i can count
I have called you mine
You have stood by me
In my darkest hours
Sing
Oh how happy (you have made me)
Oh how happy (you have made me)
Oh how happy (you have made me)
Oh how happy (you have made me)
In our years together
We’ve got stormy weathers
But our love has been so strong
For some how we carry on
Sing
Oh how happy (you have made me)
Oh how happy (you have made me), ooh, ooh
You brought joy
To my empty life, yeah
And all that was wrong
You made it right
Our love (our love)
Our love (our love)
Our love, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah…
Oh how happy (you have made me)
Oh how happy (you have made me)
Oh how happy (oh how happy)
Oh how happy (oh how happy)
Oh how happy, ooh… You…
You have made me (you have made me)
You have made me (you have made me)
You have made me (you have made me)

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

32 thoughts on “Shades of Blue – Oh! How Happy”

  1. wow, fine blast from the past. I knew the song instantly but hadn’t heard it for probably at least a couple of decades and I would never have known the group name, likely even if it was just a multiple choice question. Nice happy love song, nothing wrong with that

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    1. I had a hell of a time a few years ago finding this song! I couldn’t think of the exact name of it and many songs have Happy in them.
      It’s a fun song that connects me with a time.

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      2. I was so relieved when I found it again. Even 10 years ago…songs were not as easy to find as now. The other song that had me baffled for years that I heard a few months after this song was Kathy Young and The Innocents – A Thousand Stars. It took me years to find out who it was.

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      2. I kept getting up Christian all night long. I’m not thinking about Paul directly but I got up at 12:30 and then 3:30 and have been up since but it probably is… that he is in my mind. Yea tonight I’m going to try to really sleep. This really sucks.
        Anyway… I didn’t mean to make you wait.

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  13. I remember it a bit, but I don’t think it was played here as much as in the USA. I do know what you mean, though, about songs being associated with particular events. I’ve got some of those, too! They bring the original event back emotionally. This song’s very ‘chirpy’!

    I had to look something up, though – when you mentioned your graduation, I though you meant college. I hadn’t realised in the USA there’s a graduation ceremony from high school. So – now a lot of things make a lot more sense to me (apropos movies, particularly!) Unless things have changed a lot here in the uk in the past few decades, well, here, people pretty much just leave.

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    1. Oh yea…we have a big thing at the end of high school here. I wanted just to “leave” but my mom wanted me to walk through that line!
      Always an excuse but this time it’s more serious. I’m working on the first email…but this past week one of my best friends passed. He had been a diabetic…the insulin shot kind since he was a baby. He had a kidney transplant 4 years ago…but his body just kept rejecting. It threw me…I should have expected it…but I talked to him around a month or so ago. I’ve known him since 4th grade.

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      2. No I am going to reply! Last weekend my cousin Mark came down and stayed the entire weekend… but thank you. Yea I’m still in shock…I shouldn’t be but I am. The funeral is Monday.

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