Bb major · Camelot 6B · 92 BPM
Be Happy
by Mary J. Blige
- 92
- BPM
- Bb major
- Key
- 6B
- Camelot
- 68
- Danceability
- 13
- Acousticness
In early February 1996, Mary J. Blige took "Be Happy" to the stage of Showtime at the Apollo for the show's 200th episode, performing its official remix alongside Def Squad rapper Keith Murray. That remix sampled Jimmy Spicer's 1980s hip hop track "Money (Dollar Bill Ya'll)", giving the song a second life nearly a year and a half after its original release.
The song itself had come out in October 1994 as the lead single from Blige's second album, My Life, released through Uptown and MCA Records. Written by Blige with Sean "Puffy" Combs, Arlene DeValle, and Jean-Claude Olivier, it was produced by Combs and Olivier and built on an instrumental sample of Curtis Mayfield's 1979 song "You're So Good to Me" plus a re-sung vocal portion of Marvin Gaye's 1976 record "I Want You". It reached number 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 30 in the United Kingdom, while hitting number six on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, her fifth top-ten entry there.
To promote the single, Blige performed it on Friday Night Videos, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Soul Train, Teen Summit, and Showtime at the Apollo, among other appearances. Two official music videos for the song were produced, both directed by Puff Daddy.
Be Happy runs at 92 BPM, the tempo of hip-hop, R&B and reggaeton. In classical terms it sits in andante territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 2.61 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 652 ms. It is in Bb major, Camelot 6B, which shares its notes with G minor and mixes cleanly with Eb major and F major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.