Thursday Inspiration #127 You’ve Made Me So Very Happy

Respond to this challenge, by either by using the prompt word happy, or going with the above picture, or by means of the song ‘You’ve Made Me So Very Happy’, or by going with another song by Blood Sweat and Tears, or anything else that you think fits.  This song is Blood Sweat and Tears most popular tune and it was released on their 1968 self-titled album which was their second album.  This song charted #35 in the UK and it went to #2 in the US and it was the last song that Blood Sweat and Tears played at Woodstock.  Brenda Holloway cowrote this song with Berry Gordy, Frank Wilson and her sister Patrice Holloway and she recorded it in 1967 where her version reached #39 on the charts, becoming her third top forty pop single.  This musically gifted ballad singer, songwriter and violinist from Los Angeles was considered to be the female face of Motown when Mary Wells left the label in 1964.  Brenda opened up for The Beatles in 1965 when they played at Shea Stadium.  In 1969, Brenda at the age of 22 announced her retirement from the music business, and she sued Berry Gordy over the Blood, Sweat & Tears’ cover version of her single, and eventually Brenda won her case.

Brenda’s love was rejected by her boyfriend who had quit dating her, and she thought that she should write a song about being happy, because she felt this man was crazy for leaving her and she wanted to show him that he made a mistake.  She was determined to recover from being dumped, so she called Berry Gordy, who put her in touch with Frank Wilson, a key member of Motown’s West Coast creative team and Wilson had worked with Holloway before, writing her two previous hits, ‘Together ‘Til The End Of Time’ and (with R. Dean Taylor) and ‘Just Look What You’ve Done’.  Frank wrote the bridge part while Patrice and Brenda wrote the verse, and Berry was the producer and he owned the company.

The Blood, Sweat & Tears 45 was certified gold for a million sales, while their LP took the Album of the Year Grammy© award beating out The Beatles’ Abbey Road and it spent eight weeks at #1 on the Billboard chart.  Blood, Sweat, & Tears combined rock, blues, pop, jazz, and classical music forms with guitars and a horn section to create a hybrid sound that came to be known as jazz-rock.  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.  Al Kooper left after their debut album Child Is Father to the Man to concentrate on producing.  Randy Brecker and Jerry Weiss also left the group when Al Kooper did, while Steve Katz who played guitar, harmonica, and sang vocals, Jim Fielder on bass, Bobby Colomby on drums, Dick Halligan on keyboards, trombone, flute and Fred Lipsius playing alto saxophone, and piano all stayed with the group for the first two albums.  Jerry Hyman was brought in to play trombone, Lew Soloff for trumpet, flugelhorn and Chuck Winfield on trumpet, flugelhorn and they became the replacements along with David Clayton-Thomas who sang lead vocals, and played guitar.  This second Blood, Sweat & Tears LP had three huge hit singles, ‘You’ve Made Me So Very Happy’, the David Clayton-Thomas song ‘Spinning Wheel’, and the Laura Nyro tune ‘And When I Die’ and all three of these songs reached #2.

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