3.Happy Days Are Here Again
From The Barbra Streisand Album
Happy Days Are Here Again was written by Milton Ager (music) and Jack Yellen (lyrics) and was performed in the 1930 film Chasing Rainbows. It became the campaign song for Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt’s successful 1932 presidential campaign.
A true American standard, Barbra has threaded the song throughout her career. She first recorded the song in October 1962 to became her first commercially available single (500 copies were pressed). She re-recorded the song in January the following year for her debut album. In October 1963, Streisand sang the song in counterpoint to Judy Garland singing ‘Get Happy’ for The Judy Garland Show on television.
Introducing the song in her One Voice concert in 1987, Barbra told her audience: “In 1960, I sang it in the spirit in which it was originally written in the midst of the depression; ironically, cynically. And tonight I’d like to sing it with hope. The hope that one day soon we’ll all be able to sing it and mean every word“.