Happy Working Song facts for kids

"Happy Working Song" is a song written by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz for Walt Disney Pictures' musical film Enchanted (2007). Recorded by American actress Amy Adams in her starring role as Giselle, the uptempo pop song both parodies and pays homage to a variety of songs from several Disney animated feature films, particularly "Whistle While You Work" from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Produced by Menken, Schwartz and Danny Troob, the song appears on the film's soundtrack Enchanted: Original Soundtrack.

"Happy Working Song" takes place in Robert's untidy apartment in Manhattan, New York, in which Giselle spends her first night in the city after having been magically transported there from the fictional Andalasia. The next morning, Giselle awakens to find the apartment in a state of neglect and decides to clean it, summoning several animals to her aid. Additionally, the musical number references similar scenes from Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Cinderella (1950). Based on 1950s music, "Happy Working Song"'s bridge deliberately references the song "Belle" from Disney's Beauty and the Beast (1991).

Musically, "Happy Working Song" shares similarities with the songs "Heigh-Ho" from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, "The Work Song" from Cinderella and "Something There" from Beauty and the Beast. The song has garnered vastly positive reviews, with both film and music critics praising its humorous, witty lyrics, allusions and references to previous Disney films and songs, as well as Adams' performance. "Happy Working Song" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 80th Academy Awards in 2008 alongside Enchanted's own "That's How You Know" and "So Close", making the film one of only four to achieve this feat. Ultimately, the song lost to "Falling Slowly" from Once (2007), while the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences subsequently decided to limit the total number of Best Original Song nominations to only two per film.

Composition and inspiration

"Happy Working Song" is a "vibrant", uptempo pop song. Reminiscent of and influenced by a variety of "archetypal Disney" and "classical-sounding" musical numbers, the musical theater-inspired song runs a total length of two minutes and nine seconds. Incorporating into its lyrical structure a variety of "clever" words including "toilet", "hairball" and "vermin", while rhyming humorous terms such as "hum" and "scum" with "dum dum dum" and "vacu-um", "Happy Working Song"'s use of "comical", "tongue-in-cheek lyrics", according to Filmtracks.com, both describe and add narration to Giselle's "attempts to conjure an ultra happy tune while scrubbing floors and toilets in the real world" upon deciding "to clean her new home with the help of ... cockroaches and flies". Its musical instrumentation is heavily reliant on the use of the harpsichord, with Filmtracks.com additionally describing "Happy Working Song" as a "harpsichord-laced" song. Troob purposefully included the harpsichord in the song's instrumentation and orchestration in order to provide it with a more accurate "period setting".

According to Common Sense Media, "Happy Working Song" shares similarities with and is also inspired by "Heigh-Ho" from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, in addition to "Whistle While You Work" from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and "The Work Song" from Cinderella. Additionally, the song is reminiscent of "Belle" and "Something There" from Beauty and the Beast, specifically when it comes to its bridge and "staccato quality". Written in the key of D major in alla breve cut common time, "Happy Working Song" is structured around a "lilting", Broadway musical-inspired melody. According to the song's official sheet music, published at Musicnotes.com by Walt Disney Music Publishing, "Happy Working Song" follows an upbeat, "perky and live" tempo of 88 beats per minute. In portrayal of Giselle, Adams performs the song using an "earnest", "tart ... soprano voice". Her high soprano vocal range spans approximately two octaves, from the low note of G♯₃ to the high note of D₅. The song's lyrics begin, "Come, my little friends, as we all sing a happy little working song, merry little voices clear and strong."

Academy Award nomination and aftermath

"Happy Working Song" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 80th Academy Awards in 2008 alongside Enchanted songs "That's How You Know" and "So Close", ultimately dominating the category. However, the song was generally not favored to win by the media in spite of the fact that it was vastly a critical success. According to a poll conducted by Billboard in anticipation of the ceremony, when the magazine asked 155 of its readers "Who gets your vote for best original song in a motion picture at the Academy Awards?"; only 5% of them voted in favor of "Happy Working Song" winning the award while 10% voted for "So Close" and 24% voted for "That's How You Know". In addition to this, 6% of readers voted for August Rush's "Raise It Up" and 22% voted for Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova's "Falling Slowly" from Once (2007). Ultimately, "Happy Working Song" lost to "Falling Slowly". Menken believes that his compositions did not win the Best Original Song award because of the fact that three of them had been nominated at once.

Famously, Enchanted became the fourth out of only four films in the history of the Academy Awards to receive three separate Academy Award nominations in the Best Original Song category, having been preceded by Disney's own Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King (1994) at the 64th and 67th Academy Awards in 1992 and 1995, respectively, and Dreamgirls (2006) at the 79th Academy Awards in 2007. In anticipation of the 81st Academy Awards occurring the following year in 2009, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ultimately decided to prohibit and prevent this rare feat from reoccurring at upcoming ceremonies by limiting the maximum number of Best Original Song nominations from any one film to a total of only two per film.

See also

In Spanish: Happy Working Song para niños