"If You Wanna Be Happy," Jimmy Soul (1963)

A jumpy little ode to ugly people

Peak: #1 on the Hot 100
Streams: 12 million

Today’s entry was requested by Lost Songs Project reader Heather M. Paid subscribers can request songs here. Become a paid subscriber here.

We could be mad at this song. Furious, even. It’s explicitly sexist. It says that ugly women willy never demand too much from their husbands, because it’s implied they’ll be…