Dave The Happy Singer

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The Biography

Extract From The Biographical Encyclopaedia of Artists, Songs and Tunes:

SINGER, Dave The Happy

(b. David The Happy Singer 19--, d. 2004)

By Dr Abel Dressich, SAd, SWi, NE.
Philadelphia Institute for Social Studies, Performance, Opera, Opiates, and Rhythm; Pennsylvania.

Dave The Happy Singer (a.k.a. The Abominable Showman, Still Dave, Oh Happy Dave, The Third Ronnie, Jake The Peg) was born David The Happy Singer in the twentieth century. His parents were tree psychologists from the city of Yorkshire, England. After a time, he went to school. He often caught the bus, as Dave once recalled: ’I recall I often caught the bus to school.’ Blessed with talents for the Blues, cheese-making and modern languages, careers advisers recommended he become a blue-cheese maker abroad. Rebellious even at such a tender age, David went to university instead, where he made several important contributions to the Progressive school of stone-masonry and invented the ring donut.

While at university, David took the first step on his path to becoming a worldwide phenomenon, by changing his name to Dave The Happy Singer, after complaining that his birth-name left him open to ridicule from fellow academics. About this time, he was already very popular for his on-stage work, supporting many local artists before the invention of the bar-stool. His repertoire at the time consisted of two numbers, the skiffle standard ’Halitosis Jones’ and Dave’s original ’Community Chest’, inspired by a miners’ strike. It is said he often sang both songs at once for several hours.

It was on a train from Putsnethwaith, England to Abersangbaddly, Wales (western Britain) that Dave met his first love, Trandy Bosthwyck. Trandy winded him with her birdcage in a crowded buffet car. ’She took my breath away,’ remembers Dave, a tear in his eye. Tragedy was just around the corner, however. After a whirlwind romance, Trandy was fatally wounded by a falling box of pencils in a stationer’s shop in Bottoms Wells, Cumbria (nr. London, England). Dave was inconsolable, and wrote ’Happy’ the following day.

Although ’Song For My Friends’ topped the Croatian singles chart, Dave first made his mark on the British audience with ’Too Happy To Sing The Blues’, a song Dave wrote whilst taking a bath in a stranger’s house. The song is a powerful metaphor for the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire, yet is perhaps best loved for its innuendo and pop-culture references. Interestingly, THTSTB, the earlier ’I’m Never Gonna Do It Again’ and ’If I Told You How I Feel’ all feature references to television programs Dave The Happy Singer devised for several media companies in the late 1970’s.

’Everybody’s Best Friend’ was the first of Dave’s songs to mention Halifax (a town in West Yorkshire, England), a concept which took fans and critics by surprise. Pent Hersout of Entropy magazine remarks: ’This was by no means the first reference to a dismal West Yorkshire town in a song of unrequited love, but it certainly provided direct inspiration for such later hits as "I Left My Heart In Huddersfield", recorded by Nu-Punk outfit Tentonfish, and Windy McCraight’s dolorous folk ballad, "Cleckheaton Lady, Die"’.

However, Dave The Happy Singer is probably best known for ’Red, Yellow, Pink, And Green’, the football anthem he wrote on a hotel bill whilst working as a hay-straightener in Nassbein, Germany. In his seminal work, Toon Choons: Three Centuries of Cheerful Vocalists on Tyneside, the music historian Harpick Fleston gushes: ’Rhythm and Blues sensibilities are combined with a gentle admonition of the body politic, creating an opus of outstanding profundity which is then cleverly and modestly disguised as a formulaic, highly derivative song of sexual desire. ’Red, Yellow, Pink, And Green’ appeals to man’s basic desire for affection above all else, but tempers this with subtle yet telling reminders of history’s woeful lessons. This is a largely subconscious dichotomy which accounts for the unbridled appeal of a true and undisputed classic.’ Dave summed up the reasons for the tune’s popularity as ’The fact that so many people like it.’

Dave The Happy Singer died of a lentil overdose in 2004. He continues to record and perform.

Reproduced by kind permission of the author and the publishers, Alfredo Garnetto Publishing Inc., New York, East America.

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