The Happenings: "I Got Rhythm"

May 27, 1967 (1 week)

From the very beginning jazz musicians seemed to get George Gershwin. Classically trained, he was nevertheless open to modern music which allowed him to compose with jazz in mind. As early as the nineteen twenties figures like Duke Ellington were already fascinated by his work in a way that they weren't with Irving Berlin's compositions. "I Got Rhythm" was one of the earliest examples with it inspiring jazz standards such as Ellington's "Cotton Tail", Thelonious Monk's "Rhythm-a-Ning" and Charlie Parker's "Anthropology". In the fifties, Gershwin's Porgy and Bess began to be adapted by jazz musicians with notable complete or partial recordings by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, and the Modern Jazz Quartet. 

But the jazz greats weren't alone. Singers with a background in Broadway musicals can always be relied upon to have a perfectly enjoyable "I Got Rhythm" in their repertoires. They tend to sound more or less the same but what do you expect from a chorus of pros hitting all the right notes to make for one of the most glorious pop songs of the twentieth century?

Pop stars, on the other hand, have had a tougher time with Gershwin's works. A handful have been great but the majority are largely forgettable, mostly due to singers who gamely try out a "But Not for Me" or "Embraceable You" but who simply aren't up to the challenge. And then there's The Happenings who simply butcher "I Got Rhythm". The frat boy act had previously topped the RPM chart nine months' earlier with "See You in September". I can't stand it myself but at least it was daft enough to suit the cheery vocal group. In the case of "I Got Rhythm", however, they went well above their very modest pay grade.

Perhaps smart enough to know that they couldn't hope to compete with Miles or the MJQ, The Happenings can't help but try to overdo the Broadway tradition. With The Beach Boys moving further and further away from their patented doo-wop-influenced sunshine pop, they may have sensed an opening. It isn't the worst idea a fellow vocal group could've come up with but all their backing harmonies end up doing is drowning out much of the lead. (The powerful block harmonies of The Four Seasons would've served it far more effectively, just so long as Frankie Valli had shown some restraint with his falsetto; incidentally there is a faithful version by Brian Wilson from his 2012 album Reimagines Gershwin which sounds pretty much as you would imagine)

For all of their vocal prowess, there's something flat in their delivery too. "I Got Rhythm" is supposed to communicate a feeling of unrestrained joy but there's none of that in The Happenings' version. I'm sorry but it sounds like you guys could and would ask for a great deal more. But what do I know? All I ask for is a dynamic performance that works or a more conservative rendition that sticks to Broadway orthodoxy. This is an abject failure on both counts. Pitiful.

Score: 1

The Happenings: "See You in September"

August 29, 1966 (1 week)

One summer hit deserves another. Indeed, this seems to have been a time in which Canada's chart toppers were timely. The Happenings first of two RPM number ones came just as kids were about to go back to school.

Wait, what? "See You in September"? Isn't that something you say to someone at the start of the summer rather than at the end of it? A guy who has lucked into a girlfriend who is way out of his league only for the school year to close out with her about to go to summer camp or to her family's cabin at Mara Lake in the interior of BC or Lake of the Woods in Northern Ontario. He wishes her well while warning that there are predators out there who aren't nearly as dweeby as his nibs.

But what if "See You in September" is sung by an even bigger loser than the one described above who went on a short camping trip with his family at the end of August, met a girl who foolishly chose to give him a second look and he sung this for her when they parted a couple days later? (Him: "See you in September, babe"; Her: "You mean, next week?") Doesn't seem likely but I put nothing past the sort of people who sing this sort of crap and mean it.

Originally a Top 20 hit in Canada for the The Tempos, "See You in September" is very much a product of its time. Between the cod-tropical vibes and co-ed vocals that give it the feel of a chorus rather than a choir, The Tempos could only have arisen in the fifties. The same applies to The Happenings, only their sub-Beach Boys' harmonies make them seem like an even more of a throwback. The Tempos aren't really to my taste either but there's something charmingly quaint about them; The Happenings aren't even that endearing. They're just the sort of people who think that because they can all sing well that the music they make together must be rich and full. Yes, The Happenings are just like male R&B acts from the nineties. And worse was to come when they managed to mess up a far better song — but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Score: 2

~~~~~

Can Con

Again, not really my pint of stout — I've never cared for those nuttier dark beers — but I'd probably take the chummy singalongs of the Carlton Showband over The Happenings. Their version of Irish independence anthem "The Merry Ploughboy" touched enough of a nerve in Canada that they had an unexpected Top 10 hit with it. It wasn't quite there this week but it was well on its way. The song had recently been a number one smash in Ireland for Dermot O'Brien and His Clubmen (under its full name "The Merry Ploughboy (Off to Dublin in the Green)") but according to Aidan Curran there were two competing versions at the same time. Suffice it to say, the Carlton Showband's rendition wasn't one of them. I'd listen to all four in order to compare them but I really can't be arsed. Good for what it is but that's the best that can be said for it.