“Great Songs Write Themselves”: The Story Behind “Happy” by The Rolling Stones

In 1967 and 1968, during a break in touring, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards began exploring open tunings. Drawing inspiration from early blues artists, Richards particularly liked the open G tuning, which was conducive to developing catchy riffs that drove some of the band’s biggest hits. The tuning first became popular with Hawaiian musicians, who called it “taro patch” tuning, named after the plant used to make poi. Five-string banjos typically use the same tuning.

Richards eventually removed his lowest string and used the remaining five, leaving the lower notes for bassist Bill Wyman to cover. Hits such as “Honky Tonk Women,” “Brown Sugar,” and “Let’s Spend the Night Together” utilize the Keith Richards trademark sound. When the band was recording Exile on Main St., he came up with another one. Let’s take a look at the story behind “Happy” by The Rolling Stones.

Well, I never kept a dollar past sunset
It always burned a hole in my pants
Never made a school mama happy
Never blew a second chance, oh no
I need a love to keep me happy
I need a love to keep me happy
Baby, baby, keep me happy
Baby, baby, keep me happy

Anything but Happy

Richards had just found out girlfriend Anita Pallenberg was pregnant with their second child. Some say the line I need a love to keep me happy was a riff on Anita’s love will keep me happy. In 1986, Richards told Guitar magazine, “I don’t write songs as a diary. None of them are autobiographical, but in some sense, they’re a reaction to certain emotions. Some of the best songs—some of the happiest ditties in the world come out because you’re feeling exactly the opposite. Sometimes, you write to counteract that feeling. I was feeling anything but happy when I wrote ‘Happy.’ I wrote ‘Happy’ to make sure there was a world like that, a feeling like that.”

Always took candy from strangers
Didn’t wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like Papa
Working for the boss ev’ry night and day
I need a love to keep me happy
I need a love, baby won’t ya keep me happy
Baby, won’t ya keep me happy
Baby, please keep me

Villa Nellcote

The Rolling Stones were actually in exile at the time. They did a small farewell tour of England and then took off to France. Richards and Pallenberg moved into Villefranche-sur-Mer, Villa Nellcote. Their mobile recording studio was set up, and they began working on new material. One day, before the rest of the band arrived, Richards worked with producer/drummer Jimmy Miller and saxophonist Bobby Keys. In 2002, he told Rolling Stone magazine, “I had the riff. The rest of the Stones were late for one reason or another. It was only Bobby Keys there and Jimmy Miller, who was producing. I said, ‘I’ve got this idea; let’s put it down for when the guys arrive.’ I put down some guitar and vocal, Bobby was on baritone sax, and Jimmy was on drums. We listened to it, and I said, ‘I can put another guitar there and a bass.’ By the time the Stones arrived, we’d cut it. I love it when they drip off the end of the fingers. And I was pretty happy about it, which is why it ended up being called ‘Happy.’”

I need a love to keep me happy
I need a love to keep me happy
Baby, baby, keep me happy
Baby
Never got a flash out of cocktails
When I got some flesh off the bone
Never got a lift out of Lear jets
When I can fly way back home

Bobby Keys

The horn riffs are nearly as iconic as the guitar part. Jimmy Price added his trumpet part via overdub after the original tracking. In 2014, Richards told Rolling Stone magazine about Keys’ contribution, “Being in a guitar band, Bobby had an incredible knack of making horns melt in. He always knew the right part to play. … We cut the finished track in about an hour. Bobby was amazing on that because instrumentation-wise, that started off just guitar, a baritone sax, and some drums. Bobby’s baritone part just picked it up. Usually, Bobby would just wail in first on the baritone, then he’d add the tenor, sometimes an alto.”

I need a love to keep me happy
I need a love to keep me happy
Baby, baby, keep me happy
Baby, baby, keep me happy
Baby

The Bass

Richards added the bass part later as well. When asked in 2002 about playing so far behind the beat, he told writer Brian Hiatt, “I’m so far behind the beat, it’s almost in front. But, yeah, I’ve always loved to drag the beat back, and this thing all depends with the drummers, but with certain drummers, you can play around with the time until it’s almost gone round in a full circle. And I can never actually put it into words because you can only experience it when it’s happening, you know?”

Happy, baby, won’t you keep me
Happy, baby, won’t you keep me
Happy, baby, won’t you keep me
Happy, baby, won’t you keep me
Happy, baby, won’t you keep me
Happy, oh, keep on, baby, keep me
Happy, now baby, won’t you squeeze me
Happy, oh, baby, got to feel it
Happy, now, now, now, now, now keep me
Happy, my, my, my, keep me
Happy, keep on, baby, keep me
Happy, keep on, baby, got to
Happy, my, my, baby keep me happy

“Great Songs Write Themselves”

Richards wrote in his 2010 memoir Life, “I’d have been happier if more came like ‘Happy.’ It goes like this: Great songs write themselves. You’re just being led by the nose—or the ears. The skill is not to interfere with it too much. Ignore intelligence, ignore everything; just follow it where it takes you. You really have no say in it, and suddenly there it is: ‘Oh, I know how this goes,’ and you can’t believe it because you think that nothing comes like that. You think, where did I steal this from? No, no, that’s original—well, about as original as I can get. And you realize that songs write themselves; you’re just the conveyor.”

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Photo by Joe Bangay/Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images