“Happy People”
Little Big Town
Written by Lori McKenna and Hailey Whitters
Patty Loveless once said that her job as a singer is to not get in the way of the song.
Little Big Town have a great song in “Happy People,” full of wisdom and life advice that would probably save the world if everyone adhered to it.
But the band gets in the way of a great song by singing it all in subdued harmonies throughout. The lyrics are remarkably strong, and they needed the spotlight of a clearly discernible lead vocal to maximize their impact.
It’s still a very good record. The harmonies come to life in the chorus, and when a song is this great, you can only get in its way so much. But I suspect the best renditions of this song will be the live ones.
Grade: B
Love the lyrics. I’m not surprised that one of the writers is Lori McKenna. (Never heard of Hailey Whitters before this morning.) I’d like to hear a version of Happy People with the clearly discernible lead vocal you suggest even though I’ll buy it as is.
They lyrics are great, and (despite the production, which I agree with Kevin on), I love this song.
Lori McKenna is a legend, of course. Hailey Whitters (the co-writer) is an excellent songwriter, and I hope she gains more popularity/people record more of her songs. Here’s her singing this live, for those interested in how it sounds with a lead singer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdtzLL0Trtk
For those interested, a few other great songs of Hailey’s besides this are:
One More Hell (written after her brother died)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zt2o74e0W4
Low All Afternoon (later recorded by Martina McBride)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeCKB_f8j_s
Get Around
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ4JTD96IMA
Her work is definitely worth checking out. She has one album that came out in 2015, and hopefully many more in the future.
I agree! This will be great live!! This is my newest favorite earworm! I love what it has to say! it hits my sweetspot.
I would like an acoustic version of this, or just one without all the drums. Really, it’s the drums that drag this away from the A it should have, it’s all just bumpa-bumpa-bumpa-bumpa throughout and it distracts from everything.
I like having a strong drum section, but I do wish it didn’t sound like a drum machine.
Good lyrics but the song isn’t good. These four are way too talented for this song.
I really agree with Pete on this one. A good song that could’ve been produced better (less is more!) Not bad, but…
All songs by Little are great