I Hope You're Happy Now (Elvis Costello song)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "I Hope You're Happy Now" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Elvis Costello and the Attractions | |
| from the album Blood & Chocolate | |
| Released | 15 September 1986 |
| Recorded | March–May 1986 |
| Genre | |
| Length | 3:07 |
| Label | Demon |
| Songwriter(s) | Elvis Costello |
| Producer(s) |
|
| "I Hope You're Happy Now" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Elvis Costello and the Attractions | ||||
| A-side | "I Want You" | |||
| Released | November 1986 | |||
| Length | 3:03 | |||
| Label | Imp Records | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Elvis Costello | |||
| Producer(s) |
| |||
| Elvis Costello and the Attractions singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"I Hope You're Happy Now" is a song written by new wave musician Elvis Costello, recorded by Costello and the Attractions. The track was released on his 1986 album Blood & Chocolate after several failed attempts to record the song for earlier releases.
Featuring sardonic lyrics about a former relationship, "I Hope You're Happy Now" as the B-side to "I Want You" in November 1986. It has since been positively received by critics and appeared on compilation albums and in Costello's live setlists.
According to Elvis Costello, the final version of "I Hope You're Happy Now" was recorded after "three different attempts" to get the song right.[2] Costello and the Attractions attempted to record the song after Goodbye Cruel World with Nick Lowe, who had not produced a Costello album since Trust, but these recordings were shelved.[3] An early version of the song was performed by Costello and the Attractions on the Tonight Show in 1984.[4] The song was later attempted again during the King of America sessions; early versions of the song have since been released on expanded versions of both Goodbye Cruel World and King of America.[5] He recalled,
My final trip to Hollywood [during the King of America sessions] was made with the intention of adding "I Hope You're Happy Now" to the album. Having previously failed in an attempt to cut it as a single with The Attractions and stumbled through it on my drunken demo session, I was determined to capture it with the Keltner/Scheff/Froom line-up that had provided the heart of the record. Almost before we had the instrumental balances my voice started to vanish. We struggled through a few tentative takes, but it was useless.[6]
The version released on Blood and Chocolate was, according to Costello, ultimately "recorded live in the big, old studio at Olympic (before it was vandalized)".[2] Costello noted that, during the sessions, "We also finally got a take on 'I Hope You're Happy Now' that had a little more humour to it than its originally murderous intent. It almost sounded like pop music".[7] Stylistically, "I Hope You're Happy Now" has been dubbed a "garage rock" effort.[1]
Ed Masley of The Arizona Republic described the song as one where Costello "ridicules [the girl who broke his heart] with 'He's got all the things you need and some that you will never/But you make him sound like frozen food/His love will last forever'."[8] Costello said of the song's lyrics, "In the long run I'm happier to live with it being humorous, rather than murderous".[2]