You've Made Me So Very Happy

Album

Blood, Sweat & Tears

Label

Columbia Records

Genre

Jazz fusion

Composer(s)

Brenda Holloway;Patrice Holloway;Frank E. Wilson;Berry Gordy Jr.

Entered Chart

Mar 1, 1969

Peak Date

Apr 12, 1969

Released

March 1969

Recorded

October 16, 1968

Catalog #

Columbia 4-44776

B-Side

Blues - Part II

This was originally a #39 hit for Motown artist Brenda Holloway in 1967. Holloway shares writing credit on the song with Berry Gordy, Frank Wilson and Patrice Holloway. Blood, Sweat & Tears founder and keyboard player Al Kooper came up with the idea to cover this song, but he left the group before they recorded it. His replacement, David Clayton-Thomas, took over and sang lead on this track. Clayton-Thomas explained: "They had tried it with Al Kooper and they weren't happy with the vocals, so they never did record it. Then up at [drummer] Bobby Colomby's place one day, he was playing me a bunch of stuff that they had been considering, and I heard 'You've Made Me So Very Happy.' I said, 'Whoa, who's that? That's Brenda Holloway! I know that song!' So we did the chart and it went into the show, and we played it down at the club, and we ran up in the studio and recorded it." This was the first of three US #2 songs (also "Spinning Wheel" and "And When I Die") on BS&T's second LP, Blood, Sweat & Tears. Virtually a small orchestra, this song stood out as Blood, Sweat & Tears established a milestone in rock history with its large horn section and jazz-blues orientation. >> In his bang-up biography Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards, Al Kooper relates the discovery of saxophonist and arranger Fred Lipsius: "Fred showed up at rehearsal a few days later, and I couldn't believe it. Sam Straight. Short hair, square clothes, the whole bit. Then he unpacked his alto and started playing and that was it for me. I didn't care what this guy looked like, he could play the f--king saxophone and make it cry f'chrissakes! We played him all my tunes and he said he was in. Freddie was as sweet and innocent as anyone could possibly be, and a corruption process was essential. He'd never listened to rock 'n' roll; he was a hard-core jazzer, but had soul in huge doses. We used to force-feed him marijuana and make him listen to James Brown with headphones on. He got the picture, and pretty soon we had us a rockin' alto player." Blood, Sweat & Tears closed their Woodstock set with this song. When the festival started on August 15, 1969, Blood, Sweat & Tears was the #1 album in America. Since they were wildly popular at the time, the group commanded a premium fee: $15,000, which was second only to Jimi Hendrix. Unfortunately for BS&T, they were never paid (the festival lost money) and were not included in the film, since they would have been owed a portion of the receipts had they appeared.

I lost at love before
Got mad and closed the door
But you said try just once more
I chose you for the one
Now I'm having so much fun
You treated me so kind,
I'm about to lose my mind
You made me so very happy
I'm so glad you came into my life

The others were untrue,
But when it came to lovin' you
I'd spend my whole life with you
'Cause you came and you took control
You touched my very soul
You always showed me that
Loving you was where it's at
You made me so very happy
I'm so glad you came into my life

Thank you baby, yeah yeah

I love you so much, it seems
That you're even in my dreams I can hear
Baby, I hear you calling me
I'm so in love with you
All I ever want to do is
Thank you, baby
Thank you, baby

You made me so very happy
I'm so glad you came into my life
You made me so very happy
You made me so, so very happy baby
I'm so glad you
Came into my life
Mmmm, I want to thank you, girl
Every day of my life
I wanna thank you
You made me so very happy
Oh, I wanna spend my life thanking you
(Thank you baby, thank you baby)