Get Happy is a song composed by Harold Arlen with lyrics by Ted Koehler, the first collaboration between the two, introduced by Ruth Etting in The Nine-Fifteen Revue in 1930. The tune carries a gospel-inspired message about getting happy and seeking spiritual ecstasy. It is most closely associated with Judy Garland, who performed it in the 1950 MGM musical Summer Stock, and that version helps it remain a well known standard; it placed #61 in AFI’s 100 Years...100 Songs list. An instrumental hot jazz arrangement by Abe Lyman’s Brunswick Recording Orchestra served as the original theme music for Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoons from 1931 to 1933. Elvis Costello named his fourth studio album, Get Happy!!, released in 1980, after the song. In 2024, Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga performed Get Happy in Joker: Folie à Deux, and Lady Gaga released a solo cover on Harlequin, her companion album to the film.
