Happy Days Are Here Again

“Happy Days Are Here Again” is a 1929 song with music by Milton Ager and lyrics by Jack Yellen. The song is a standard that has been interpreted by various artists. It appeared in the 1930 film Chasing Rainbows and was the campaign song for Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1932 presidential campaign. It is the unofficial anthem of Roosevelt’s Democratic Party. The composition was renewed in 1956, so it will enter the American public domain on January 1, 2025. Sound recordings from 1929 will follow on January 1, 2030, under the provisions of the Music Modernization Act. The song is number 47 on the Recording Industry Association of America’s list of “Songs of the Century”. In 1986 it received an ASCAP Award for ‘Most Performed Feature Film Standards on TV’.
The song was recorded by Leo Reisman and His Orchestra, with vocals by Lou Levin in November 1929 and was featured in the 1930 film Chasing Rainbows. The song concluded the picture, in what film historian Edwin Bradley described as a “pull-out-all-the-stops Technicolor finale, against a Great War Armistice show-within-a-show backdrop”. Closely associated with Franklin D. Roosevelt’s successful presidential campaign in 1932, the song gained prominence after a spontaneous decision by Roosevelt’s advisers to play it at the 1932 Democratic National Convention: after a dirge-like version of Roosevelt’s favorite song “Anchors Aweigh” had been repeated over and over, without enthusiasm, a participant reportedly shouted: “For God’s sake, have them play something else”, which caused the band to play the new song, drawing cheers and applause, and subsequently becoming the Democratic Party’s “unofficial theme song for years to come.” The song is also associated with the Repeal of Prohibition, which occurred shortly after Roosevelt’s election where there were signs saying “Happy days are beer again” and so on. Matthew Greenwald described the song as “[a] true saloon standard, [and] a Tin Pan Alley standard, and had been sung by virtually every interpreter since the 1940s. In a way, it’s the pop version of “Auld Lang Syne”. The song has been recorded hundreds of times, and appeared in over 80 films, including many from the 1930s. The song has also appeared in the popular TV show “Doctor Who”, in the first 10 seconds of season 3, episode 4, “Daleks In Manhattan.”