Far Out 40: The happiest classic rock songs of all time
Rock and roll has had a track record as of late for being a genre meant to be dangerous. Ever since Kurt Cobain started talking about his inner pain, many artists have tried to make their living out of songs that relied on minor keys or tapping into some kind of existential angst whenever they picked up a guitar. That’s not what the genre used to be like, though, and some of the biggest names in music have made tunes that could be prescribed to someone to overcome their depression.
Then again, happiness is insanely hard to quantify in music. While some tunes might be easier to spot because they are in major keys or have some kind of peppy bounce to them, there are just as many that pull a bait and switch on the audience. For every optimistic tune the Police ever made, there are tunes like ‘Every Breath You Take’ that pull the wool over people’s eyes by having it be the soundtrack to a stalker.
At the same time, the biggest stars in the world know how to make a song feel like nothing can ever get them down. Even if the tune itself isn’t anything special, the core part of these songs is all in the delivery, whether that’s the way that they sing the tune or how much the band is pushing everything forward whenever they perform.
Take a song like The Beatles’ ‘All You Need is Love’, for example. Half of that song is only based on three chords and hardly anything groundbreaking, but listening to the way that John Lennon and Paul McCartney belt out that chorus, you would think that they had found a way to end all wars throughout the land and end all suffering in the world.
Then again, you can’t have happiness without acknowledging the sadness, either, and some of the best songs on this list know how to play both sides of the conversation. It would be easy to write a song that sounds like you have sunshine shooting out of your ass, but sometimes the best way of telling someone that nothing can get you down is to talk about how you can overcome the struggles that you deal with every day.
And let’s not forget the music in the background. Some of the best songs in the world get by having a great lyric, but thanks to the band playing their hearts out, that kind of swagger is palpable from the minute that every song starts, either subtlety nudging you into the beat or creating the kind of bottled-up sunshine that anyone would kill for.
There are even a few moments where songs seem to take on a life of their own outside of their original context. Some of these tunes may have had dark backstories before they were released, but looking at how they shaped up, that pain can help other people heal in the best of situations, leading to someone either finding a confidante in the music or making a connection beyond notes on a page.
So as you look through the happiest songs of all time, you have to remember that it’s more than a catchy tune for most people. Because while anyone can make a catchy tune that gets hammered into people’s heads, no one will ever forget that songs like this make them feel.
Far Out Magazine’s full list of the happiest classic rock songs:
- ‘Mr Blue Sky’ – ELO
- ‘Hey Jude’ – The Beatles
- ‘Imagine’ – John Lennon
- ‘Happy Together’ – The Turtles
- ‘Every Little Thing She Does is Magic’ – The Police
- ‘Good Vibrations’ -The Beach Boys
- ‘I’m Still Standing’ – Elton John
- ‘Here Comes My Girl’ – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
- ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ – Paul McCartney
- ‘You Make Loving Fun’ – Fleetwood Mac
- ‘You’re My Best Friend’ – Queen
- ‘Good Times Roll’ – The Cars
- ‘I Fought the Law’ – The Clash
- ‘Born to Run’ – Bruce Springsteen
- ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ – Journey
- ‘Dance the Night Away’ – Van Halen
- ‘No Matter What’ – Badfinger
- ‘I Want You To Want Me’ – Cheap Trick
- ‘A Town Called Malice’ -The Jam
- ‘Take It Easy’ – Eagles
- ‘Happy’ – The Rolling Stones
- ‘Up Around the Bend’ – Creedence Clearwater Revival
- ‘Sweet Emotion’ – Aerosmith
- ‘The Kids Are Alright’ – The Who
- ‘California’ – Joni Mitchell
- ‘Awaiting On You All’ – George Harrison
- ‘The Ballad of El Goodo’ – Big Star
- ‘What I Like About You’ – The Romantics
- ‘Handle With Care’ – Traveling Wilburys
- ‘Burning Love’ – Elvis Presley
- ‘Rich Girl’ – Hall and Oates
- ‘Keep A Knockin’ – Little Richard
- ‘Heart of Glass’ – Blondie
- ‘Sunday Morning’ – The Velvet Underground
- ‘Your Smiling Face’ – James Taylor
- ‘Turn Turn Turn’ – The Byrds
- ‘The Boys are Back In Town’ – Thin Lizzy
- ‘We Got the Beat’ -The Go-Gos
- ‘Our House’ – Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
- ‘The Longest Time’ – Billy Joel
