12 Songs and Videos to Help Make You Smile

Featuring music by Paul McCartney, The Bangles, Adam Ant, Phoebe Bridgers, and more

As all of you already know, it’s not always easy to smile. Situations in our own lives, or horrible events going on in the world (which there are far too many of lately) can often make happiness feel like something we won’t be able to easily achieve.

Sometimes the best cure, even if it’s only temporary, is escaping the hard times with music. My friend Mark Holburn recently wrote a great piece about this entitled ‘The World Needs a Bit of Peace and Harmony.’ In addition to Mark’s wonderful words, his post also contains eleven uplifting songs.

I found it all to be very inspiring. So did Paul Combs, who wrote his own piece entitled Happy Songs Are Not My Thing, But I Can Never Resist A Writing Prompt.

Much like Paul, I find it nearly impossible to resist prompts like the one Mark presented to us. Therefore, I’ve gathered together a dozen songs that always make me feel good — even on the roughest of days.

I chose these 12 songs not only because I like to listen to them, but also because I always have fun watching the below music videos for them.

Press — Paul McCartney

In addition to this being a fun song, the music video never ceases to make me smile. It was shot entirely in the London Underground. Paul can be seen traveling on a Tube train. What I love most about it is seeing Paul interact with others in the train station and during the ride. He and everyone else around him seemed to be having an absolutely fantastic time.

Ooh Ooh Song — Pat Benatar

This catchy song was released by Pat Benatar in 1984. While not as ‘big’ as some of her other songs from the 1980s, I’ve always loved it.

The events in the video seem to be taking place at some sort of carnival or circus. It’s full of fun and charming moments. There’s even a juggling clown and monkey in it.

And let’s be honest here — you can never have enough juggling clowns or monkeys in music videos!

Be With You — The Bangles

A great song sung by The Bangles’ drummer Debbi Peterson. All of the band members looked like they were having a great time while this was being filmed.

Although The Bangles are lip-synching in the video, it was shot during one of the concerts of their 1988–1989 tour for their Everything album. I was at one of those shows and I can tell you that the excitement of the audience in the video is almost exactly how the audience was at the show I attended. The Bangles are an incredible live band. They put on a great show and know how to make audiences feel good!

Straight Up — Paula Abdul

“Straight Up” was the song that made Paul Abdul a superstar. Personally, I think it’s one of the best pop songs of the 1980s. I also love the music video, which features a fun special appearance by comedian and actor Arsenio Hall.

Rush Hour — Jane Wiedlin

When I saw that Paul Combs included the song “Head Over Heels” by The Go-Go’s on his list of ‘happy songs,’ he inspired me to include one by them too, since they’re one of my favorite groups ever.

I was initially going to go with “Vacation” or “Beneath The Blue Sky,” but then I decided instead to go with a solo song by Go-Go Jane Wiedlin.

“Rush Hour” was a big hit for Jane on both radio stations and on MTV. I love that she’s swimming and playing with dolphins in the video. Fun!

On a related side note, there was briefly a plan back in the ’80s for me and Jane Wiedlin to get married. She never knew about it, of course, but it was something I planned in my head for a little while back then.

You’re A Friend Of Mine — Clarence Clemons & Jackson Browne

One of my favorite songs and videos ever. I remember recording the video off of MTV onto videotape. I played that tape over and over and over again for months.

In addition to Clarence Clemons and Jackson Browne singing on this one, we also see and hear actress Daryl Hannah (Browne’s then-girlfriend) singing background on it. I’ve always thought that she sounded really good on it.

Come On Eileen — Dexy’s Midnight Runners

Who doesn’t feel happy when they listen to this song or watch this music video?

Note To Self: You don’t wear overalls enough, Buddy!

The Safety Dance — Men Without Hats

A great quirky song with a video that suits it perfectly. The video is non-stop fun from start to finish! A dwarf dressed as a court jester dancing and frolicking about with a woman who seems like she’s having the best time of her life? People wearing chicken masks as they dance and jump around? Oh, yeah! Bring it all on for me. I love every second of it!

Down Under — Men At Work

Men At Work made several great music videos while they were together. This is one of my favorites of them. Each of the band members is very entertaining in this — especially lead singer Colin Hay. The guy has always been a natural on camera.

Goody Two Shoes — Adam Ant

My favorite band when I started high school was Adam and the Ants. If you’ve never heard their great 1980 album Kings of the Wild Frontier (which contained hits like “Antmusic” and “Dog Eat Dog), I very highly recommend it to you. It’s full of awesome songs!

I was bummed out when they split up a couple of years later, but I was thrilled with Adam Ant’s first solo album, Friend Or Foe, which contained “Goody Two Shoes.” The song became his biggest-selling solo hit. I’m sure the very entertaining video (which was on MTV a lot back then) was a big part of why the record sold so well for him.

TRIVIA: The woman wearing glasses in the music video is actress Caroline Munroe, who earlier had starred in several films, including the classic James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me.

Alright — Supergrass

I first discovered this song and music video because of the movie Clueless. The song was featured in the movie and the music video was included on the official videotape release of Clueless. I owned the videotape and I fell in love with the above video.

It’s a lot of fun! The members of Supergrass, especially Danny (the guy wearing a shirt with ‘Danny’ on the front of it), are HILARIOUS in it.

The video sort of reminds me of the music videos (before they were called music videos) that The Monkees used to do on their old TV show in the 1960s.

Kyoto — Phoebe Bridgers

This music video is, without a doubt, one of my favorite videos from the past decade or so.

Some people may wonder how something by Phoebe Bridgers made it into this article. I can understand that. As much as I love her music, Phoebe Bridgers isn’t exactly known for writing ‘light and happy songs.’

Even though it contains some lyrics that some may consider ‘dark,’ the uptempo “Kyoto” is much more musically ‘pop sounding’ than most of her other songs.

And the music video is fun from start to finish! It reminds me a lot of the ‘feel good’ kinds of videos that were commonly seen on MTV back in the ’80s and ’90s.

In it, Phoebe is dressed in a skeleton costume and super-imposed over images of Kyoto, Japan. In one moment she can look a little bit menacing, but a moment later she looks like an adorable young person just having fun. We see her flying over the city and the ocean — and at one point she even battles Godzilla!

If you’ve never seen the video, I encourage you to check it out.

If you’d like to hear any of the above songs on Spotify, I’ve added them to the top of a playlist I created there called ‘Not-So-Guilty Pleasures.’ There are currently over 80 songs on it from a VERY wide-ranging assortment of musicians. If you listen to the playlist, I hope you enjoy it!

Thank you for reading! If you’d like to connect with me outside of Medium, you can also find me on X, Instagram, Threads, and Goodreads. I’m also the host of the GOTTA POP podcast. Links to all of those things can be found here.