DVDizzy Forum

I'm looking for those old-timey songs that have become classics for their feel good nature.

Here's some examples:

Ain't No Mountain High Enough
American Pie
Celebration
Do You Believe In Magic?
Don't Stop Believin'
Everyday Is A Winding Road
Happy Together
I Got You (I Feel Good)
In The Summertime
L.O.V.E
Lean On Me
Little Bitty Pretty One
Oh Happy Day
Proud Mary
Send Me On My Way
She's So High Above Me
Stuck In The Middle With You
This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)
What I Like About You

~~~~~~

Please suggest some more. Judging by the list, I think you can tell what I'm looking for!

I typed "feel good songs" in google and got this link, seems like a pretty good list. I bolded ten of my favorites.

Feel Good Pop Music

1. What A Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong
2. Beautiful Morning - Rascals
3. Living In America - James Brown
4. I'm A Believer - Monkees (or Smash Mouth)
5. Ain't No Mountain High Enough - Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
6. Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
7. You're The First, The Last, My Everything - Barry White
8. Walking on Sunshine - Katrina and the Waves
9. Get The Party Started - Pink
10. Lean On Me - Bill Withers
11. Hey Ya - Outkast
12. You're My Best Friend - Queen
13. We Like To Party - Venga Boys
14. My Guy - Mary Wells
15. Soul Man - Sam and Dave (or the Blues Brothers)
16. Thank You For Being a Friend - Andrew Gold
17. (Build Me Up) Buttercup - Foundations
18. Pon De Replay - Rihanna
19. Yeah! - Usher featuring Lil Jon & Ludacris
20. Let's Get Loud - Jennifer Lopez
21. Good Vibrations - Beach Boys
22. Under The Boardwalk - The Drifters
23. Bang On The Drum - Todd Rundgren
24. Love Train - O Jays
25. Dancing In The Street - Martha and the Vandellas
26. On Top Of The World - Carpenters
27. Let's Groove - Earth Wind and Fire
28. Wake Me Up Before You Go Go - Wham!
29. Miserlou (instrumental) - Dick Dale
30. Pump It - Black Eyes Peas
31. I Feel Fine - The Beatles
32. Higher and Higher - Jackie Wilson
33. All-Star - Smash Mouth
34. Drift Away - Dobie Gray
35. I Got You Babe - Sonny and Cher
36. The Promise - When In Rome
37. Saturday Night At The Movies - Drifters
38. Joy To The World - Three Dog Night
39. I Believe I Can Fly - R Kelly
40. Bad Day - Danial Powter
41. Up Up and Away - the Fifth Dimension
42. Let's Get It Started - Black Eyed Peas
43. Yesterday Once More - Carpenters
44. Beautiful Soul - Jesse McCartney
45. Afternoon Delight - Starland Vocal Band
46. What I Like About You - Romantics
47. We Will Rock You - Queen
48. Put Your Records On - Corrine Bailey Ray
49. Ladies Night - Kool and the Gang
50. We Got The Beat - GoGos

A few songs I'd add that aren't on the list:

"Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow" - Fleetwood Mac

"The Power of Love" - Huey Lewis and the News

"How Sweet It Is" - Marvin Gaye

"They Can't Take That Away From Me" - notable versions include Fred Astaire, Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, etc.

albert

If you don't mind a few Disney suggestions, these are the songs that make me feel good at the end of a bad day"
"A Wish is a Dream your Heart Makes" - Cinderella
"A Whole New World" - Aladdin
"Human Again" - Beauty and the Beast (both the Broadway and movie versions are great)
"Zero to Hero" - Hercules
"You've Got a Friend in Me" - Toy Story
"One world, One Family" - Tarzan

As for general songs, here are some of my favorites:
"Singin' in the Rain" - Any version will do, but I love the Gene Kelly version the best
"Journey to the Past" - Anastasia (the Aaliyah version is good, but the movie version is MUCH better)
"It's Raining Sunshine" - Miranda Cosgrove (from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. It makes me very happy every time I hear it).
"Fireflies" - Owl City (Very soothing song)

pap64 wrote:"Fireflies" - Owl City (Very soothing song)

Very overplayed though, IMO.

And as for me, Billy Joel's Why Should I Worry from Oliver and Company always cheers me up. That's pretty much all I've got, because I tend to listen to depressing songs to cheer me up.

Scarred4life wrote: That's pretty much all I've got, because I tend to listen to depressing songs to cheer me up.

I thought I was the only one who did that.

I can't really think of any classics off the bat, but I know "It's Raining Men" always manages to put me in a good mood. For some reason.

Oh! Maybe "Feeling Good"? Hmm. Not sure.

*clears throat*

Edelweiss by Julie Andrews
On a Clear Day (You Can See Forever) by Julie Andrews
Feed the Birds by Julie Andrews
The Sound of Music by Julie Andrews



Besides Julie music, other songs that cheer me up are "Be Our Guest", "Under the Sea", and "Part of Your World". Of course, ALL the songs I just mentioned are very specific to my own tastes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuDMZAvf5gw

I'd recommend this song, personally.

Off the top of my head:

Manic Monday - The Bangles
Daydream Believer - The Monkees
Gold - Spandau Ballet
Over My Shoulder - Mike and the Mechanics
Sunday Girl - Blondie
Fame - Irene Cara
Maniac - Michael Sembello
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper
Footloose - Kenny Loggins
Venus - Bananarama
Take On Me - A-Ha
Walking On Sunshine - Katrina and the Waves
Life Is A Rollercoaster - Ronan Keating
Cloud No. 9 - Bryan Adams
Maneater - Hall & Oates
Fields Of Gold - Sting
Crush - Jennifer Paige
Somewhere Only We Know - Keane
Joyride - Roxette
Kokomo - Beach Boys
Red Red Wine - UB40
Sara Perche Ti Amo - Ricchi e Poveri
Hungry Eyes - Eric Carmen
You Belong To Me - Dean Martin (just one among many other cover versions)
Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now - Starship

Some really old feel good songs:

I'd Love You to Want Me - Lobo

Precious and Few - Climax

Open Arms - Journey

You'll Love Me Again - Bonniwell Music Machine

Love Is Such A Simple Word - T.S. Bonniwell

Me and You and a Dog Named Boo - Lobo

Chick-a-Boom - Daddy Dewdrop

Just a few that I think are the "best" feel good songs ever done.

Though of another one! 'A Star is Born' from Hercules.

Skyrockets in Flight (Afternoon Delight) - especially the MV from Anchorman.
In the Jungle
something from the Proclaimers

Neal wrote:American Pie

You never paid attention to the lyrics, did you?

Anyway, my list:

Nina Simone- Ain't got no/I got life
Simon & Garfunkel- The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)
The Police- Every little thing she does is magic
Albert Hammond- Free electric band
Martha & The Vandellas- Heatwave
Lovin' Spoonful- Summer in the City
Robbie Williams- Let me entertain you
The Beatles- Penny Lane
The Beatles- Here comes the sun
The Beatles- Good day sunshine
Carole King- You've got a friend
Frank Sinatra- I've got the world on a string
Frank Sinatra- Come fly with me
Black Eyed Peas- Let's get it started
Pink- Let's get this party started
Red Hot Chili Peppers- Snow ((Hey Oh))
Ilse De Lange- So Incredible
Mando Diao- Dance with somebody
Bob Dylan- I shall be free
Bob Dylan- I shall be free, No. 10
Bob Dylan- Stuck inside of Mobile with Memphis Blues again
Bob Dylan- Bob Dylan's 115th dream
Bob Dylan- I want you
Bob Dylan- Chimes of freedom

Out of the top if my mind.

Some out the top of my head (apologies if mentioned before)

The Beatles: "All you need is love"
Alan Menken, from "Enchanted" : That's how you know"
"You'll never walk alone" (from the musical "Caroussel" I think)
"I feel good" (obviously a 'feel good' song, but don't no what artist/singer involved )
Sonny & Cher: "I got you babe".
"I'm singing in the rain" from the movie-musical.

I agree with many of the selections, including the Beatles songs as far as "pop" music goes and also the Disney and Julie Andrews film songs. (I actually listen more to Disney music and film music than pop music!)

Limiting myself here to just "pop" songs, here are a few that make me feel "up" off the top of my head, mostly from the 80's and 90's but a few older ones as well. These were selected more for the music than lyrics although in most cases the lyrics are upbeat as well.

"Nothing Can Stop Us" - St. Etienne
"You Make Me Feel So Good" - Book Of Love
"Chains Of Love", "Stop", "Phantom Bride", etc - Erasure
"What Have I Done To Deserve This" - Pet Shop Boys featuring Dusty Springfield
"Se A Vida E", "It's Alright", "Was It Worth It", etc. - Pet Shop Boys
"Sowing the Seeds Of Love" - Tears For Fears
"Closest Thing To Heaven" - Tears For Fears
"Things Can Only Get Better" - Howard Jones
"Genius Of Love" - Tom Tom Club
"Shiny Happy People" - REM
"Doing the Unstuck" - the Cure
"Carolyn's Fingers" - Cocteau Twins
"Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" - The Fifth Dimension
"We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions" - Queen
"Don't Stop Me Now" - Queen
"Getting Better" - the Beatles
"Band On the Run" and "Jet" - Paul McCartney/Wings
"Don't Stop Till You Get Enough", "Rock With You", etc - Michael Jackson
"Downtown" - Petula Clark
MANY tracks by the Supremes and Martha and the Vandellas
MANY tracks from the "disco" era

For me, my most favourite feel good song is 'Get Happy' by Judy Garland.

You can't beat blasting out that song super loud to make you feel good !!

"Getting Better" - the Beatles

Hmmm... Isn't that the song from "Abbey Road' with lyrics like " I used to be cruel to my woman, I beat her, and kept her apart from the things that she loved. Man I was mean but I'm changing my scene and I'm doing the best that I can". Not really a 'feel good' song to me. Rather a scoundrel who tries to mend his ways, but not 'happy, happy'!

David S. wrote:"Shiny Happy People" - REM

Strange... that's in fact a very cynical song, as I've understood it. And I don't get a good vibe from it.

BelleGirl wrote:

"Getting Better" - the Beatles

Hmmm... Isn't that the song from "Abbey Road' with lyrics like " I used to be cruel to my woman, I beat her, and kept her apart from the things that she loved. Man I was mean but I'm changing my scene and I'm doing the best that I can". Not really a 'feel good' song to me. Rather a scoundrel who tries to mend his ways, but not 'happy, happy'!

Actually it's from Sgt. Pepper, and I did say that the songs I listed were more for the music than the lyrics

Despite majoring in English lit/writing, I listen to pop music much, much more for the music than the lyrical merit, which may explain why McCartney is my favorite Beatle

I find the music of "Getting Better" very "upbeat" and "fun" and no one else had listed it; hence it's inclusion.

This would be my same reply to Goliath regarding "Shiny Happy People" . On the surface it's simply a fun, upbeat song. I suppose there may be a layer of cynicism below the surface for those who analyze such things

David S. wrote:"Nothing Can Stop Us" - St. Etienne

I went through a little St. Etienne back when I was doing illegal-Napster (2000-2001) and I didn't like most of their stuff. However, on that note, I'd also recommend "Saturday" and "You're in a Bad Way." Which you've... probably heard? They were about the only songs I grew to like.

David S. wrote:"What Have I Done To Deserve This" - Pet Shop Boys featuring Dusty Springfield

Love that song, absolutely one of my all-time favorites. However, I have to pull a Goliath and say- it's about as legitimately happy as getting punched in the teeth. By like Mr. T, you know.

David S. wrote:"Genius Of Love" - Tom Tom Club
"Shiny Happy People" - REM
"Carolyn's Fingers" - Cocteau Twins

Enthusiastic agreement here on all of those.

David S. wrote:MANY tracks from the "disco" era

I especially recommend "Car Wash" by Rose Royce, Kool and the Gang's "Ladies' Night," "More More More" by Andrea True Connection, and Parliament's "Aqua Boogie (A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop)."

I think any song can be a "feel good" or "feel bad" song depending on how the listener interprets it, and not necessarily what the lyrics say.

The Carpenters' "Rainy Days and Mondays" is positively dreary, but it always makes me feel better because Karen Carpenter's voice is amazing and this song is one that showcases it well, so I'd consider it a "feel good" song even if others may listen to it when they're down in the dumps.

On the flipside, I heartily dislike a joyful song like "All I Want For Christmas Is You" and loathe hearing it on the radio. So while it may be a "feel good" holiday song for most people, I "feel bad" in the sense of "ugh, change the station".

Using the two examples from this thread, I "feel good" when I hear "American Pie" because it's like a bittersweet remembrance of an era passed, so I feel good thinking about such a time. And like David S. said, I feel good about "Shiny Happy People" because on the surface it's pleasant to listen to.

albert