One song I loved when I was young was: “Happy-go-lucky me.” It has been so long now that I can’t remember how it goes. Ah but I have now found it .
Finding the last song helped me find this one. When we were teenagers, we were on holiday at Mac’s Cottages in Margate, South Africa. There we met three girls who sang this song. They thought it was fun, because their Dad’s name was Fred. They were real pretty and sang so nice.
Do what you do do well boy
This was one of my favorite love songs when I was 19 years old. “He couldn’t move a mountain, nor pull down a big oak tree, but my Daddy became a mighty big man with this simple philosophy.” (Do what you do do well boy, by Ned Miller.) That song helped me when I sang on TV. After the show, the manager said I could sing whatever I wanted.
The other song I sang was: ‘Walk Tall.‘ The first song was about a dad advising his son, and the other song about a mother telling her wayward son to walk tall. Those are both very good moral songs.
Trini Lopez sang some happy songs like: “Green Green.” I heard it on a ‘live’ recording when I was young. “Green, green, it’s green they say, on the far side of the hill. Green green I’m going away to where the grass is greener still.” It seems like all my life I have been looking for greener pastures. To me, far away places seemed so exciting. Even as a kid, the places in the distance seemed far more appealing than the places nearby. I used to love the blue mountains in the distance. When I painted pictures in Matopos, near Bulawayo, I always used to start with the blue mountains in the distance, then work my way forward. One part of the song I don’t like is where he says, “Buddy can you spare me a dime.” I don’t feel comfortable with people begging.
When we were teenagers on holiday in Margate, Natal, we roller skated at the roller rink to “Like a Tiger” by Fabian. That was such a happy song with such a nice driving beat, I would skate as fast as I could. Although I have never sung that song, I still love to hear it. It brings back all those happy memories.
Jeremy Taylor was a big hit in Africa when I was a teenager, and this is one of his songs. I remember hearing another song about him taking his horse to town, and getting a parking sticker stuck on the horse’s bum.
Here is another happy song that I forgot to include. It was a song I heard when I was young, sung by the Ray Conniff singers. Happiness is different things to different people. So true.
I first heard this song in 1976 when we were riding across America, then later on I heard it on a record by Chet Atkins.