Represented by Lee Eastman (father of Linda McCartney), a New York copyright and show business attorney, Mrs. Donnie worked it out on his guitar, changed it a bit, wrote some lyrics, sang it at parties and prudently got it copyrighted." Six weeks later, while "Oh Happy Day" was still on the pop charts, the Washington Post reported that Nancy Binns Reed, a 28-year-old housewife, had filed a lawsuit to prove that she wrote the song. Time Magazine reported in 1953 that "Oh Happy Day" had a "folklike origin: Donnie heard it sung by an Ohio State girlfriend, who had picked it up on the campus. The disc credited Kaplow as the composer, who sang under the professional name "Don Howard." His simple solo rendition, with no orchestra or backup singers, became known as a "garage hit." By February 1953, it was pushing the half-million mark. Then the record was leased to another label (Essex) for national distribution. Upon release by a brand new record company (Triple A), 21,000 copies quickly sold around Cleveland. A contract was signed in early November 1952 and "Oh Happy Day" went on sale. Calls began coming in from nearby cities, and it was decided the record should go to market. Once it was played on the air, teenage fans besieged the disc jockey, Phil McLean of radio station WERE with requests that kept him spinning the song all week. This convinced Koplow to put the song on wax. At a Saturday high-school dance, the boys and girls called 13 times for "Oh Happy Day". Don Howard Kaplow sang it accompanied by his guitar before his classmates at Cleveland Heights High School, in Cleveland, Ohio. "Oh Happy Day" was one of the first pop hits whose momentum was driven by the high-school teen set. Rhythmic errors in Howard's playing, audible especially in the first verse, were left in the finished product. Howard originally performed it in the key of E ♭ major. My life's complete, dear, for now I have you. While different covers of "Oh Happy Day" phrased the lyrics somewhat differently, the official sheet music for the initial hit version by Don Howard has the following lyrics: The song has four verses of eight bars each, with no refrain or chorus, sung and performed in a slow swing rhythm. The song is set in a basic four- chord progression, either I-vi-ii-V7 or I-vi-IV-V7 depending on the musical arrangement. Concurrently with Howard's original acoustic pop recording, concurrent cover versions by two established acts, the Lawrence Welk Orchestra (whose version featured a now-famous basso profondo lead vocal by Larry Hooper) and the Four Knights, were also released for a time in 1953, all three versions were top-10 hits. Reed and Howard eventually settled, with each receiving co-writer credits. The song was originally recorded and copyrighted by Don Howard, a high school student who had learned the song secondhand the song's originator, Nancy Binns Reed, heard the song and within weeks of its release sued to claim songwriter credit. " Oh Happy Day" was a 1952 surprise hit song, one of the first whose initial popularity was driven by teenagers rather than support from the music industry. JSTOR ( May 2021) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message).Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.įind sources: "Oh Happy Day" 1952 song – news Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This article needs additional citations for verification.
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