Happy Single

Title: Happy Single (CD)

Artist: Pharrell Williams

Record Label: Back Lot Music

Copyright: 2013

Genre: Neo Soul/Funk

Age Range: All Ages

Listener’s Annotation: Pharrell’s upbeat single from the Despicable Me 2 movie.

Summary: “Happy” was a song written for the Despicable Me 2 movie. Coming from a family movie, it is a very basic song that does not have any explicit lyrics. Williams wrote and produced the single with back up vocals from Rhea Dummett, Trevon Henderson, Ashley L. Lee, Shamika Hightower, Jasmine Murray and Terrence Rolle. "Happy" plays for 3 minutes and 53 seconds.

Critical Evaluation: One might question why a single would make it into a library collection. The song “Happy” is a very popular single, but the album that it is connected to might be seen as juvenile. Teens would be less likely to pick up the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack and more likely to pick up the Williams single. It is a good single to add to a collection, physical or digital, because it is a positive song. Williams is a very popular artist whose career spans a good amount of years working with various groups as a producer and as an artist. It was also nominated for an Academy Award, but lost out to Frozen’s “Let It Go.”

Artist Information: Pharrell Williams was born on April 5th, 1973 and is an American music producer, singer-songwriter and rapper. He is one half of the production duo The Neptunes, with Chad Hugo, and he has produced music for a range of well known Pop, Hip-Hop and R&B artists. As well as his production talents, Pharrell is also the lead singer and drummer of the funk-rock band, N*E*R*D. Source - http://www.contactmusic.com/info/pharrell_williams

Challenge Issues: None