"Get Happy" is a song with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Ted Koehler, their first collaboration, published in 1930 by Remick Music. Ruth Etting introduced it in the 1930 stage musical The Nine-Fifteen Revue. The song draws on the gospel-music idea of getting happy, an expression of religious ecstasy and salvation. An instrumental hot-jazz arrangement by Abe Lyman and his Brunswick Recording Orchestra served as the theme of Warner Bros.' Merrie Melodies cartoons from 1931 to 1933.
The song became a jazz standard from the 1940s and is often played in swing style. Judy Garland is most associated with it, performing it in Summer Stock (1950), and it ranked 61st in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs list. Elvis Costello named his 1980 album Get Happy!! after the song. Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga performed it in Joker: Folie à Deux (2024).
