Peak
5
Weeks
14
Score
2,463
Chart Year
1976
This was the theme to the hit TV series Happy Days. The series began in 1974 and originally featured Bill Haley's "Rock Around The Clock" as it's opening theme and a version of "Happy Days" sung by a studio chorus as the closing theme song. Starting in 1976, Happy Days replaced "Rock Around The Clock" at the beginning of the show. "Happy Days" was written by television theme writers Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox, who also wrote the themes for Wonder Woman, Laverne and Shirley, and Love Boat. They also composed "Killing Me Softly With His Song," which became a big hit for Roberta Flack and won the composers a Grammy Award for Song Of The Year. Charles Fox got his start writing theme songs on the show Love American Style. He explained in our 2010 interview: "Love American Style had three separate segments, totally unrelated to each other - different stories, different casts. They were always called 'Love and the...' something. I remember 'Love and the Eskimo,' I remember 'Love and the Stuttering Cowboy,' I remember all kinds of silly things. But this was called 'Love and the Happy Days.' And ABC made it a pilot at the same time, because it was a good way for ABC to develop a pilot and use it as part of the cost of Love American Style. They loved that show, but they decided that they weren't ready to re-visit the '50s, so they put it in the can until a year or two later when George Lucas's picture American Graffiti came out. And then they went back to what they already had in the can as a pilot, and the rest, as they say, is history." Pratt & McClain were a commercial jingle singing band consisting of Jerry McClain and Truett Pratt, who were also known as Brother Love. They released "Happy Days" as a single in 1976, which gave the duo their only UK and US Top 40 hit. At the beginning of the show, a jukebox loads a record, and when the needle drops, this song starts playing. That record - the 45 RPM single - was pressed specifically for the show open, and if you look carefully you'll see that it says, "Happy Days, music by Charles Fox, lyrics by Norman Gimbel." Fox told us: "It's been sitting in the back of my studio for years, and only recently the Smithsonian asked if I had any singular object that they could place in their new music wing. So that is going to be what they call inducted into the Smithsonian, and it's going to sit in the box with the Fonz's jacket. It's his leather jacket, so it's really a nice thing for me to know that it has that place in history." It's pretty rare for a TV theme song to get recorded into a full-length record and become a hit, but that's what happened here. It followed the very successful "Welcome Back," which was the theme to Welcome Back, Kotter written and performed by John Sebastian. The theme Gimbel and Fox wrote for the Happy Days spin off Laverne and Shirley was also made into a full song and hit #25 in the US. This song features prominently in Happy Days: The Musical, which is a stage adaptation of the TV show. Garry Marshall, who created the original show, also worked on the musical, which features songs by Paul Williams. Read more in our interview with Paul Williams. This was used on the Friends episode "The One With The Race Car Bed" (1996). It plays while Ross and Monica talk about how they used to pretend to be Happy Days characters when they were kids.
Sunday, Monday, Happy Days Tuesday, Wednesday, Happy Days Thursday, Friday, Happy Days Saturday, what a day Rockin' all week with you This day is ours Won't you be mine? (Oh Happy Days) This day is ours Oh, please be mine (oh Happy Days) Hello sunshine, goodbye rain She's wearin' my school ring on a chain She's my steady, I'm her man I'm gonna love her all I can This day is ours Won't you be mine? (Oh Happy Days) This day is ours Oh, please be mine (oh Happy Days) Gonna cruise her 'round the town Show everybody what I've found Rock 'n' roll with all my friends Hopin' the music never ends This day is ours Won't you be mine? (Oh Happy Days) This day is ours Oh, please be mine (oh Happy Days) Sunday, Monday, Happy Days Tuesday, Wednesday, Happy Days Thursday, Friday, Happy Days Saturday, what a day Rockin' all week with you This day is ours Won't you be mine? (Oh Happy Days) This day is ours Oh, please be mine (oh Happy Days) Goodbye grey sky, hello blue 'Cause nothing can hold me when I hold you It feels so right, can't be wrong Rockin' and rollin' all week long This day is ours Won't you be mine? (Oh Happy Days) This day is ours Oh, please be mine (oh Happy Days) Hello sunshine, goodbye rain She's wearin' my school ring on a chain She's my steady, I'm her man I'm gonna love her all I can This day is ours Won't you be mine? (Oh Happy Days) This day is ours Oh, please be mine (oh Happy Days) These Happy Days are yours and mine Won't you be mine? (Oh Happy Days) These Happy Days are yours and mine Oh, please be mine (oh Happy Days) These Happy Days are yours and mine Won't you be mine? (Oh Happy Days) These Happy Days are yours and mine Oh, please be mine (oh Happy Days)
| Week | Chart Date | Position | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Apr 3, 1976 | 89 | 37 |
| 2 | Apr 10, 1976 | 79 | 47 |
| 3 | Apr 17, 1976 | 57 | 69 |
| 4 | Apr 24, 1976 | 37 | 89 |
| 5 | May 1, 1976 | 26 | 100 |
| 6 | May 8, 1976 | 19 | 107 |
| 7 | May 15, 1976 | 9 | 117 |
| 8 | May 22, 1976 | 7 | 119 |
| 9 | May 29, 1976 | 6 | 120 |
| 10 | Jun 5, 1976 | 5 | 121 |
| 11 | Jun 12, 1976 | 5 | 121 |
| 12 | Jun 19, 1976 | 11 | 115 |
| 13 | Jun 26, 1976 | 32 | 94 |
| 14 | Jul 3, 1976 | 65 | 61 |