Glad to Be Unhappy
Rodgers & Hart’s musical lament over unrequited love has become a beloved standard, recorded by dozens of artists. Introduced by Doris Carson in On Your Toes in 1936, the song was not an instant hit, but over the ensuing decades it achieved success in recordings by many high-profile artists, including Sammy Davis, Jr., Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Barbra Streisand, Nancy Wilson and – in a surprise 1967 hit – The Mamas and the Papas.
COVERS & POP CULTURE
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“Glad to Be Unhappy” LYRICS
Frankie:
Look at yourself – If you had a sense of humor
You would laugh to beat the band.
Look at yourself – Do you still believe the rumor
That romance is simply grand?
Since you took it right
On the chin
You have lost that bright
Toothpaste grin.
My mental state is all a-jumble.
I sit around and sadly mumble.
Fools rush in, so here I am,
Very glad to be unhappy.
I can’t win, but here I am,
More than glad to be unhappy.
Unrequited love’s a bore
And I’ve got it pretty bad.
But for someone you adore
It’s a pleasure to be sad.
Like a straying baby lamb
With no mammy and no pappy
I’m so unhappy,
But, oh, so glad!
Unrequited love’s a bore
And I’ve got it pretty bad.
But for someone you adore
It’s a pleasure to be sad.
Like a straying baby lamb
With no mammy and no pappy
I’m so unhappy,
But, oh, so glad!
"Glad to Be Unhappy" by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart
©1936 by Chappell & Co., Inc. Copyright Renewed.
International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved.