Happy - Live / Remastered 2009

"Happy" is one of a handful of Rolling Stones songs with Keith Richards singing lead, and the only one that charted. Others with his lead vocals include "You Got The Silver" and "Little T and A."

They say that just the act of smiling can make you feel better. Well, singing "Happy" could also make you happy. Keith Richards explained: "That's a strange song, because if you play it you actually become happy, even in the worst of circumstances. It has a little magical bounce about it. I wrote it one afternoon when we were cutting Exile on Main St. in France and the studio was in my basement. And Bobby Keys was with me and they got this lick going. So we went down and I recorded it with just guitar and Bobby Keys on baritone saxophone. While we were doing that, Jimmy Miller, who was our producer at the time, came in. And he was a very good drummer as well. So we said, well let's put down a dub, we'll just sort of sketch it out and play it later. But it's another one of those things that ended up being on the record. It was just one of those moments that you get that are very happy. And I can play it now and it gives you a lift. I don't know why except for maybe the word."

This was recorded at Richards' villa in France when The Stones left England to avoid paying taxes. They used the basement as a recording studio, but had a hard time getting everyone together at once because of the drug abuse and party atmosphere. The only people to play on this were Keith (guitar, bass, vocals), producer Jimmy Miller (drums), and horn player Bobby Keys (percussion). Horns were dubbed in later.