It’s been a good while since pure joy has won as big as it did today on the Hot 100, with Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” finally landing atop the chart. As noted earlier, Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” is the last song with the word “Happy” in its title to bow at the apex of the Hot 100.
That fun fact demands that the other “Happy” and “Happiness”-incorporated jams reveal themselves for proper re-acknowledgment. A good bit of them are from yesteryear. Apparently, the world was a more cheery place in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Give them a looksee below—from Pharrell to Sheryl Crow, R.E.M. to Al Green and some acts your parents may have boogied to, here are the top 20 "Happy" songs ever. And don't let that word fool you; there are a few singles on here that aren't as peachy as their title suggests.
The ranking is based on actual performance on the weekly Billboard Hot 100 chart. Songs are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at No. 100 earning the least. To ensure equitable representation of the biggest hits from each era, certain time frames were weighted to account for the difference between turnover rates from those years.