| "Happy Jack" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Single by the Who | ||||
| from the album Happy Jack (US version of A Quick One) | ||||
| B-side |
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| Released |
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| Recorded | 10 November 1966 | |||
| Studio | CBS Studios, London | |||
| Length | 2:14 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Songwriter(s) | Pete Townshend | |||
| Producer(s) | Kit Lambert | |||
| The Who singles chronology | ||||
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| Official audio | ||||
| "Happy Jack" on YouTube | ||||
"Happy Jack" is a song by the British rock band the Who. It was released as a single in December 1966 in the United Kingdom, peaking at No. 3 in the charts.[1] It peaked at No. 1 in Canada. It was also their first top 40 hit in the United States, where it was released in March 1967 and peaked at No. 24.[1] It was included on the American version of their second album, Happy Jack, originally titled A Quick One in the UK.
The song features Roger Daltrey sharing lead vocals with John Entwistle and Pete Townshend. At the tail end of "Happy Jack", Townshend can be heard shouting "I saw you!"; it is said that he had noticed drummer Keith Moon trying to join in surreptitiously to add his voice to the recording, something the rest of the band would try to prevent (Moon had a habit of making the other members laugh).[2][3] Rolling Stone critic Dave Marsh calls this line "the hippest thing" about the song.[3]
In the song, Happy Jack "lived in the sand at the Isle of Man". 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. According to Marsh, "the lyric is basically a fairy tale, not surprisingly, given the links to Pete's childhood".[3]
Greg Littmann interprets the song as a possible reaction to alienation, as Jack allows "the cruelty of other people [to] slide off his back".[4]
Despite its chart success, Who biographer Greg Atkins describes the song as being the band's weakest single to that point.[1] Daltrey reportedly thought the song sounded like a "German oompah song".[5] But Chris Charlesworth praised the "high harmonies, quirky subject matter" and "fat bass and drums that suspend belief".[2] Charlesworth particularly praised Moon's drumming for carrying not just the beat, but also the melody itself, in what he calls "startlingly original fashion".[2] Marsh states that although the song contained little that the band had not done before, it did "what the band did well", giving the "soaring harmonies, enormously fat bass notes, thunderous drumming" and the guitar riffs as examples.[3]
According to Pete Townshend’s autobiography, "Happy Jack" is Paul McCartney’s favourite Who song.[6]
- ^ a b c Atkins, John (2000). The Who on Record: A Critical History, 1963-1998. MacFarland. pp. 74–76. ISBN 9781476606576.
- ^ a b c Charlesworth, C. (1995). The Complete Guide to the Music of the Who. Omnibus Press. p. 104. ISBN 0711943060.
- ^ a b c d Marsh, D. (1983). Before I Get Old. St. Martin's Press. pp. 240–241. ISBN 0312071558.
- ^ Littmann, G. (2016). "Who's That Outside: The Who and the Problem of Alienation". In Gennaro, R.J.; Harison, C. (eds.). The Who and Philosophy. Lexington Books. pp. 55–59. ISBN 9781498514484.
- ^ Segretto, M. (2014). The Who FAQ. Backbeat Books. pp. 29, 50. ISBN 9781480361034.
- ^ Townshend, Pete (2012). Who I Am. Harper Collins. p. 120. ISBN 9780062127242.