Album · Elvis Costello & the Attractions
Get Happy!! by Elvis Costello & the Attractions
Get Happy!! is an album by Elvis Costello & the Attractions, released in 1980. 3 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 18 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down”, on 12 lists with a best position of #70.
Get Happy!!, Elvis Costello's fourth album and his third with the Attractions, came out on F-Beat in Britain on 15 February 1980, with Columbia handling America, and it sounds like a man who raided a crate of old soul singles and decided to play them all at once. Nick Lowe produced. The sessions began in London, but Costello judged the new songs too close to Armed Forces and hauled the band off to the Netherlands to start again.
What came back was 20 songs crammed onto one LP: Steve Nieve's organ, Bruce Thomas's bass and Pete Thomas's drums (no relation) pumping out ska, R&B and '60s soul while Costello sings about romances going down in flames. He covers Sam & Dave's "I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down" and the Merseybeats' "I Stand Accused", and the sleeve was dressed up to look like a Stax record. A label dispute held it back, but it climbed to number 2 in the UK and now ranks among his finest work.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from Get Happy!! on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down | 12 | #70 | – | 1980–2005 | |
| 2 | 5ive Gears in Reverse | 4 | #43 | – | 1980–2003 | |
| 3 | I Stand Accused | 2 | #1104 | – | 2002–2003 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.