My Happiness (popular song)

"My Happiness"
Song
Published 1948
Writer Betty Peterson Blasco
Borney Bergantine
Language English
Recorded by Jon and Sondra Steele
The Pied Pipers
Ella Fitzgerald
The Marlin Sisters
Connie Francis
many other artists; see #Recorded versions

"My Happiness" is a pop music standard which was initially made famous in the mid-twentieth century.

High profile versions

"My Happiness"
Single by Connie Francis
from the album Connie's Greatest Hits
B-side "Never Before"
Released 1958
Format 7" single
Genre Easy listening
Length 2:28 (A-side)
2:49 (B-side)
Label MGM Records K 12738
Writer(s) Betty Peterson Blasco
Borney Bergantine
Producer(s) Morton Craft and Jesse Kaye
Certification Gold (U.S.)
Connie Francis
US singles chronology
"Fallin'" /
"Happy Days and Lonely Nights"
(1958)
"My Happiness" /
"Never before"
(1958)
"If I Didn't Care" /
"Toward the End of the Day"
(1959)
"My Happiness"
Single by Connie Francis
B-side "Happy Days and Lonely Nights"
Released 1959
Format 7" single
Genre Easy listening
Length 2:28 (A-side)
2:49 (B-side)
Label MGM Records 45-MGM-1001
Writer(s) Betty Peterson Blasco
Borney Bergantine
Producer(s) Morton Craft and Jesse Kaye
Connie Francis
UK singles singles chronology
"You Always Hurt the One You Love" /
"In the Valley of Love"
(1958)
"My Happiness" /
"Happy Days and Lonely Nights"
(1959)
"If I Didn't Care" /
"Toward the End of the Day"
(1959)
"My Happiness"
Single by Connie Francis
B-side "You Always Hurt the One You Love"
Released 1959
Format 7" single
Genre Easy listening
Length 2:28 (A-side)
2:25 (B-side)
Label MGM Records M 21 100
(distributed by Electrola)
Writer(s) Betty Peterson Blasco
Borney Bergantine
Producer(s) Morton Craft and Jesse Kaye
Connie Francis
German Singles chronology
- "My Happiness" /
"You Always Hurt the One You Love"
(1959)
(distributed by Electrola)
"Lipstick on Your Collar" /
"Frankie"
(1959)
(distributed by Electrola)
"My Happiness"
Single by Connie Francis
B-side "Never Before"
Released 1960
Format 7" single
Genre Easy listening
Length 2:28 (A-side)
2:49 (B-side)
Label MGM Records 61 001
(distributed by Polydor)
Writer(s) Betty Peterson Blasco
Borney Bergantine
Producer(s) Morton Craft and Jesse Kaye
Connie Francis
US singles chronology
"Lipstick on Your Collar"/
"Frankie"
(1959)
(distributed by Electrola)
"My Happiness"/
"Never before"
(1960)
(distributed by Polydor)
"Lipstick on Your Collar"/
"Frankie"
(1960)
(distributed by Polydor)

An unpublished version of the melody with different lyrics was written by Borney Bergantine in 1933.

The most famous version of the song, with lyrics by Betty Peterson Blasco, was published for the first time in 1948. The first known recording of this version was in December 1947 by the Marlin Sisters but the song first became a hit in May 1948 as recorded by Jon and Sondra Steele (Damon 11133) (#3) with rival versions by The Pied Pipers (Capitol 1628/15094)1 and Ella Fitzgerald (Decca 24446) entering the charts that June reaching respectively #4 and #8 with the Marlin Sisters version (Columbia 38217) finally charting with a #24 peak that July. A version by John Laurenz (Mercury catalog number 5144, with the flip side "Someone Cares"[1]), entered the Billboard magazine charts on August 7, 1948 where it stayed for 2 weeks, peaking at #26.

Connie Francis — whose favorite song at the age of eight had been the Jon and Sondra Steele version of "My Happiness" — remade the song in a 6 November 1958 session at the Radio Recorders studio in Hollywood, CA produced by Morton Craft and Jesse Kaye; David Rose conducted the orchestra. The song almost became Francis's first #1 hit in the first months of 1959 but was kept at #2 by another remake of a standard: the Platters' version of "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes".

Other versions

"My Happiness" is reportedly one of two songs — the other being "That’s When Your Heartaches Begin" — Elvis Presley recorded in his first recording session at the Memphis Recording Service (Sun Studios). In January 2015, Presley's version of "My Happiness" sold to a then unknown online bidder at an auction for $300,000.[2] The bidder was later identified by Billboard Magazine's 5 March 2015 edition, as having been top rock musician Jack White, a huge fan of Presley who briefly but adroitly played his character in the 2007 satirical film "Walk Hard".

The song has also been recorded by Frank Sinatra, Gale Storm, Vera Lynn, Fats Domino, Jim Reeves, Andy Williams, Kitty Wells, Teresa Brewer, Pat and Shirley Boone, Paul & Paula, Lucille Starr, the Bachelors, Skeeter Davis, Lena Zavaroni, Albert West, Freddy Fender, Margo Smith, Slim Whitman, Roger Whittaker, Chris Isaak, and Amanda Lear.

"My Happiness" has also been recorded as rendered in Czech by Yvetta Simonová (cs) ("Drahoušku Můj"/ 1966), in Dutch by Ciska Peters (nl) ("Daar Droom Ik Van"/ 1982), in Finnish by Pärre Förars (fi) ("Onneni"/ 1959), in German by Lale Andersen ("Wenn Die Lindenbäume Blüh'n"/ 1951) and also by Ernie Bieler (de) ("Immer will ich treu dir sein"/ 1959), and in Swedish by the Streaplers ("En Junidag": album Valentino/ 1976).

References

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