Official Chart Pop Gem #27: Jimmy Soul – If You Wanna Be Happy

Official Chart Pop Gem #27: Jimmy Soul – If You Wanna Be Happy
cher_mermaids.jpg

This classic from Cher’s 1991 hit movie Mermaids is our oldest Pop Gem yet.

When we put a call-out for Pop Gems every week, we never know what we’re going to pick. For us, a Pop Gem is the kind of tune that was a big hit in its day but has somehow fallen down the back of pop’s sofa in recent years, hardly gracing the radio.

So when we asked for your favourite songs from movies, we were expecting the usual tracks you might find on those brilliant compilations of movie tunes – and we got them.

But in among the timeless classics were a few others that don’t get as much of an airing in 2013. And the one that got our toes tapping and revived our tired eyes and ears the most was Jimmy Soul’s all-but-forgotten two-and-a-half minutes of magic from 1963 – If You Wanna Be Happy. You’re saying “Who?” You’re saying “What?” We thought you might.

The song has been knocking around for over 50 years – even by the time it featured in a fun scene in 1991 movie Mermaids, it already had a lot of miles on the clock. Mermaids was a surprise hit at the box office. Leading lady of rock legend Cher starred as a mum of two impressionable girls – played to perfection by Winona Ryder and a very young Christina Ricci – who wandered from town to town when love affairs went wrong. All this changed when she met Bob Hoskins. (Seriously. Well, he had a certain charm, we guess.)

Jimmy’s star turn comes at the end of the movie when, after a good hour and a half of trials and tribulations and angst and, more importantly, laughs, the three ladies dance around the kitchen preparing a ‘delicious’ meal. The clip is brilliant, especially to see Cher trying her best not to look like a perfect, polished popstar and Winona Ryder gamely dancing through gritted teeth, despite having all the natural rhythm of a packet of chewing gum. And Christina is a pretty good mover for a little ‘un.

If You Wanna Be Happy reached Number 39 in the Official Singles Chart for Jimmy Soul in 1963, and was his sole hit. Jimmy sadly died in 1988, so never got to see one of the most famous popstars on Earth pretend to prepare salad (or whatever it is) while his fantastic song blares out in the background.

There is, of course, a more famous song from MermaidsCher’s The Shoop Shoop Song – that got to Number 1 and everything, but that’d be too obvious, right? Right.

Watch the scene from Mermaids below:

Got a Pop Gem?

Know a long-forgotten favourite that needs to be shown some Official Chart Pop Gem love? Don't be shy! Either mail us your nomination at popgem@officialcharts.com or keep your beady, chart-loving eye on our Facebook and Twitter on a Friday, where we reveal the week's theme. Get involved: Your Pop Gem Needs You.

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