Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Music Lyrics Explained 13. All right.
Today we're doing, actually an older one by Jimmy Soul and it's actually kind of a
funny song. It's meant to be humorous. It's meant to be in jest. It's meant to
be more of a joke. So, and the song is "If you want to be happy.' Okay.
All right. Just one little note about this. This song hit number one in 1963 and stayed
there for two weeks. It lasted 14 weeks in the top 100. Okay and all right. Let's
just get into it, and then you'll you'll see why it's meant to actually be a joke.
This is what they .... So as usual again I'll read the lyrics and as we come across
lyrics to be explained, I'll explain them. So let's start. If you want to be
happy for the rest of your life never make a pretty woman your wife. So for my
personal point of view, get an ugly girl to marry you.
All right. So it's meant as a joke. So he's telling you, don't marry a pretty girl.
Marry an ugly girl. So let's go over this again. If you wanna. Of course if you say
'wanna' remember this is very informal English. It's not really proper English.
But wanna means want to. We hear it a lot in regular speech and we definitely hear it a
lot in songs too. So if you want to be happy for the rest of your life. You know,
for the rest of your days. While you're alive. Never make a pretty woman your
wife. So don't marry pretty women. You know find, find ugly women, ugly women are
better. So from my personal point of view. From my personal point of view. From my
point of view. Get get an ugly girl to marry you. I have to say I don't know
if I totally agree with this. I guess the point he's trying to make and there is
some truth to it. That some pretty girls sometimes do become conceited
and they do become very demanding. But not all. There's a lot of very pretty
women that also are very beautiful inside as well. And they make lovely
wives. And you know I think even in my case I was lucky that
found a woman that. I think my wife is like this. But anyway. It's still a funny song.
It's still a humorous song and it's meant as a joke. So I think I'll just
repeat this first part one more time. Then we'll go right into the second part. If
you want to be happy for the rest of your life.
Never make a pretty woman your wife. So from my personal point of view get an
ugly girl to marry you. A pretty woman makes her husband look small and very
often causes his downfall. All right. So let's, let's go over that.
If a pretty woman makes her husband look small, look small here, if you say a
person is small, it means not very important inferior or lower in quality. It will kind
of bring you down. That's what, that's basically what he's saying. And causes
his downfall. Downfall is your failure. I don't know if if the pretty woman is a
like what we call high-maintenance sometimes. If she's very demanding. If you
got to work hard or if she's very demanding if she doesn't treat you well
and God forbid if she cheats on you. That'd be even worse . But that's what we
mean. It causes his downfall. So I'll go again with the second verse.
Here a pretty woman makes her husband look small and very often causes his
downfall. As soon as he marries her then she starts to do the things that will
break his heart. So basically he's saying that. Yeah as soon as you get married you
know maybe she'll change. Sometimes in real life this does happen. That people sometimes
do change right after they get married. That means, that's when it will start. You
know before you marry. Maybe you won't see this. But after you get married. A
situation may be very different. Yeah the things will break his heart. Well to
break his heart. Maybe . maybe she will cheat on him. I don't know who knows what.
Or make life difficult for him. All right. Let's continue. Let's go on to the next
verse. But if you make an ugly woman your wife. You'll be happy for the rest of
your life. An ugly woman cooks her meals on time. She'll always give you
peace of mind. Yeah so again. You'll be happy with the ugly woman. Maybe an ugly
woman is more appreciative. Maybe she really tries harder. That, that's kind of
his point. She'll cook the meals on time. All right. Well I don't know some, some
feminists might not like that line today. But 1963 I think it was okay. She'll
always give you peace of mind. All right. This is an important part. If you say
peace of mind. Someone has peace of mind, he doesn't have to have any serious
worries problems or difficulties. Maybe if you do have a beautiful wife,
sometimes you might have to worry you know, that maybe other men might be
attracted to her or try to tempt her or try to steal her away from you. This
could cause you problems. It depends on that pretty wife. You know, whether you
whether you, whether she makes you feel comfortable that you could trust
her or not. And then of course it all depends on her personality as well. Okay.
So, so let me just repeat that one again. So but if you make an ugly woman your
wife, you'll be happy for the rest of your life. An ugly woman cooks
her meals on time. She'll always give you peace of mind. Okay. And then I think that
the chorus can goes again you know if you want to be happy for the rest of
your life , blah, blah, blah. and then we go into the next verse. It says don't let
your friends say you have no taste. Go ahead and marry her anyway. Well he's
talking about the ugly woman. Though her face is ugly and her eyes don't match.
Take it from me. She's a better catch. All right. So don't let your friends say you
have no taste. Remember if we talk about your taste is
the type of thing you like. Remember you could have a you could have a certain
taste in music. Maybe you, maybe you like I don't know, rock music or maybe like
classical or rap. It doesn't matter. That's your taste. That's the thing that you
like. So if they say you have no taste. Maybe you have no taste in picking women
because you picked an ugly woman. So that's what your
friends might be teasing you about this, and he's saying don't don't let them do
that. So don't let your friends say you have no taste. Go ahead and marry her
anyway. So don't let them convince you that you know that you shouldn't marry
her. Though her face is ugly and her eyes don't match. Well again she's not pretty.
Her eyes don't match. All right. Well I'm not really sure what's going on there.
Take it from me she's a better catch. Okay.
Remember if we say catch. Someone who would be an appropriate husband, wife, or a
romantic partner. We often say that if somebody thinks that you're lucky that
you got a good partner, a good girlfriend, boyfriend, husband, wife, etc. Oh he's a good
catch. They might say yeah. He's a good catch. Don't let go of him or she's a
good catch. You better hold on to her. So that's
usually the way we say it. So he says take it from me. Take it from me means
you know, listen to my opinion. . She's a better catch. and then of course,
at the end, you know, I think he goes through the chorus again. If you want to
be happy for the rest of your life and at the very end of the song I guess he's
saying it like, like, his friends are talking like, say man, hey baby
saw your wife the other day. Yeah. She's ugly.
Yeah. She's ugly but she sure can cook. Okay. Good. Yeah. Okay.
And then basically that's how the song kind of ends. Right at the end there.
Again it's just meant to be in jest. So it's just meant to be humorous. It's meant to
be funny. You should go listen to it and check it
out. It has pretty good beat too. Anyway, if you never heard this song. This is a nice
introduction to it. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you. Thank you. For your time. Bye-
bye.