BILL ANDERSON PENNED “HAPPINESS” RE-RECORDED BY CELEBRITIES IN U.K. AS A TRIBUTE TO HEALTH SERVICE WORKERS
During this unprecedented time in history, when the feelings of joy and happiness may not be felt as often, National Health Service (NHS) workers in the United Kingdom are finding solace in a ‘Whisperin’ Bill Anderson hit song re-recorded by an all-star cast. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame member wrote “Happiness” in 1964 and it became a smash for Sir Ken Dodd overseas. As the Daily Mirror recently reported, celebrities across the U.K. re-recorded “Happiness” as a tribute to all those in health service.
“It really pleases me to know that a song I created over 50-years ago can be repurposed and used to bring a little sunshine to these dark days we are all going through right now. God bless the NHS and workers on the front lines everywhere,” Anderson shared.
Though “Happiness” wasn’t Sir Ken’s highest charting single, it was a fan-favorite and became his signature hit, which he performed in his shows up until his passing in 2018.
Royle Family star Ricky Tomlinson is joined in the video by Glenda Jackson, Rick Astley, Jimmy Tarbuck, Shirley Ballas, Claire Sweeney, Les Dennis and Carol Decker. Additionally, the video features dozens of nurses and families from the Liverpool area where Sir Ken was from.
Check out this version of Happiness filmed in London in 2012.
April 15, 2020 @ 10:03 pm
I saw Bill Anderson on the January 2020 CFR Country cruise. He is a true gentleman. I flew over from London UK. Love country music, but our country music is different to the American Country music. My grandchildren listen to my Bill Anderson CD .. Anderson.
Thank you Bill for bringing some light and laughter into these dark days.
Sir Ken Dodd, and his diddymen knew a good song when they heard it, He played at the end of the pier show a lot, and ALWAYS sang Happiness , and quite often STILL.
God bless you both, and Sir Ken is keeping the Angels amused.
April 15, 2020 @ 9:22 pm
I can go right back to my early childhood and the first songs or songs that I heard of Bill Anderson was of one of my all time comedians was and still is Sir Ken Dodd and hid Diddy men. He introduced me to Bill’s music and Happiness was and still is one of my all time favourite songs. He also covered Still.. He must have liked country music to some degree as he had one or two country songs in his career and it has to be said that I did not know anything about country music back in the sixties as all most people ever knew music was Popular music or just plain Pop. It was not really until I got to listening to some of my uncles records around 1969/70 that I learned that music had different genres. We had mostly single records at the time and my father had a few LP’s but non of them were country. I learned most of my early knowledge of country music by reading my uncles record sleeves, and found a love for the steel guitar. In those early years country music was not all that easy to find in the record shops, you had to order what you wanted in most cases. It wasn’t really till the mid seventies that most record shops had a dedicated country section. I spent many hours in record shops just reading record covers before I had my own money to buy them. The local radio station in my case was Radio Humberside and the country music DJ was Tex Milne, and he had his favourite singers and Bill Anderson was just one of them. The one song that he would play frequently was Golden Guitar and that became one of my all time favourite songs and may I say still is. And it is great to be able to be part of the family of Bill Anderson just as a music fan alone. I have never met Bill personally, but through buying his music via his website has allowed me the honour of having him sign merchandise that you used to only have the chance after a show.