If It Makes You Happy

Album

Sheryl Crow

Label

A&M Records

Genre

Country rock

Composer(s)

Jeffrey Robert Trott;Sheryl Suzanne Crow

Entered Chart

Sep 21, 1996

Peak Date

Jan 25, 1997

Released

September 3, 1996

Recorded

Studio Kingsway (New Orleans) Sunset Sound Factory (Los Angeles)

Catalog #

A&M 1874

B-Side

I'm Going To Be A Wheel Someday

This song describes a person who seems depressed or upset no matter what happens. According to Crow, the inspiration for the song was her feelings after the massive success of her first album, Tuesday Night Music Club, as her record label and the media put pressure on her to follow it up. That debut album she wrote and recorded with a group of guys who would get together on Tuesday nights to make music. When it became a surprise hit, some of them disparaged Crow in the media, claiming they deserved more credit and/or royalties than they got. "It was a message to everybody that had been a part of the first record," she told People in 2023. "While everybody's making a ton of money off this record, I'm the one that's having to defend myself. That was basically the impetus for the song." The song raises some interesting questions about the nature of happiness, which can be fleeting and subjective. Asked by Rolling Stone in 2017, "If it makes you happy, can it be that bad?" Crow responded: "As great a hook as that might be, that is a conundrum. My struggle in life is accepting the idea of choosing to be happy. Happiness is not something where you wake up that way. You decide you're gonna be happy. And it took me a long time to figure that out. I definitely consciously do it with my children, because they define themselves by your mood and how it relates to them. As a parent and as a person, life can be happy, but you have to decide that that's the life you're gonna lead." Crow wrote this song with Jeff Trott, who has worked on many of her songs, including "Everyday Is a Winding Road" and "Soak Up The Sun." Trott came up with the line, "If it makes you happy, then why the hell are you so sad?" "I look at songwriters like they're people who really love puzzles," Trott explained to Songfacts. "When you don't really have the real heart of the theme developed yet, and then all of a sudden, you stumble across it, I always say something like, 'All right we've cracked the code.'" On her VH1 Storytellers appearance in 1998, Sheryl Crow said this was initially a country song, but she turned it into a rock song so she could get more exposure. >> "If It Makes You Happy" was the first single from Crow's second album, Sheryl Crow. Her first album, Tuesday Night Music Club, was released in 1993 but took over a year to catch on; the singles "Strong Enough" and "Can't Cry Anymore" were on the charts well into 1995. "If It Makes You Happy" showed that her debut wasn't a fluke, giving her a solid hit and plenty of momentum for the album. She used a different set of musicians than she did on Tuesday Night Music Club and produced the album herself. The Australian lensman Keir McFarlane directed the video, which portrays Crow as an angry museum exhibit (10 years before the movie Night at the Museum). McFarlane also did the video for Tom Petty's "Mary Jane's Last Dance." "If It Makes You Happy" won the Grammy award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and the album won for Best Rock Album. Two years earlier, Crow won three Grammys, including Best New Artist. >> Crow is a huge fan of Tom Petty, and said that this song was in some ways inspired by the way he played. In 2011 Crow teamed up with chef Chuck White to write a cookbook called If It Makes You Healthy.

I been long, a long way from here
Put on a poncho and played for mosquitoes
And drank 'til I was thirsty again
We went searchin', through thrift store jungles
Found Geronimo's rifle, Marilyn's shampoo
And Benny Goodman's corset and pen
Well, okay, I made this up
I promised you I'd never give up

If it makes you happy
It can't be that bad
If it makes you happy
Then why the hell are you so sad?

You get down, real low down
You listen to Coltrane, derail your own train
Well, who hasn't been there before?
I come 'round, around the hard way
Bring you comics in bed, scrape the mold off the bread
And serve you French toast again
Well, okay, I still get stoned
I'm not the kind of girl you'd take home

If it makes you happy
It can't be that bad
If it makes you happy
Then why the hell are you so sad?
If it makes you happy
It can't be that bad
If it makes you happy
Then why the hell are you so sad?

We've been far, far away from here
Put on a poncho and played for mosquitoes
And everywhere in between
Well, okay, we get along
So what if right now, everything's wrong?

If it makes you happy
It can't be that bad
If it makes you happy
Then why the hell are you so sad?
If it makes you happy
It can't be that bad
If it makes you happy
Then why the hell are you so sad?