Happy Jack (song)
| "Happy Jack" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||
| Single by The Who | ||||
| B-side | "I've Been Away" "Whiskey Man" (Decca) |
|||
| Released | 3 December 1966 | |||
| Format | 7" single | |||
| Recorded | 10 November 1966, CBS Studios, London | |||
| Genre | Pop rock | |||
| Length | 2:14 | |||
| Label | Reaction Records (UK) Decca Records Polydor (EU) |
|||
| Writer(s) | Pete Townshend | |||
| Producer | Kit Lambert | |||
| The Who singles chronology | ||||
|
||||
"Happy Jack" is a rock song from British rock band, The Who, released in December 1966 in the UK and peaking at #3. It was their first top forty hit in the USA, released in March 1967 and peaking at #24. It was included on the USA version of their second album. The album was titled A Quick One in the UK and retitled Happy Jack for the USA.
This song features Roger Daltrey on lead vocals with John Entwistle singing the first verse (it's one of the only songs composed by Pete Townshend to feature John Entwistle on lead vocals). At the tail end of "Happy Jack", Townshend can be heard shouting "I saw you!", and it is said that he was noticing drummer Keith Moon trying to join in surreptitiously to add his voice to the recording, something the rest of the band disliked.
According to some sources, Townshend reported the song is about a man who slept on the beach near where Townshend vacationed as a child. Children on the beach would laugh at the man and once buried him in the sand. However, the man never seemed to mind and only smiled in response.
[edit] Live performances
This song was first performed by The Who in 1967 and continued to be played until 1970. It was also performed in Townshend's first solo concert in 1974. The most recent performances of this song were short one-and-a-half minute versions at the Shepherd's Bush Empire, London on December 22 and 23, 1999.
A tease of this song was played at a 1982 concert in Indianapolis to appease a fan who was holding a sign saying, "Play Happy Jack, It's My Birthday!", which was blocking the vision of several fans behind him. However, Townshend stated that he and the band couldn't remember how to play the full song anymore.[1]
[edit] Cover versions
American rock band Southern Culture on the Skids covered it on their 2007 album Countrypolitan Favorites. The song was used as the soundtrack to an endearing but controversial Hummer TV commercial in 2005. [2]
[edit] References
 |
This 1960s rock-song-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
