The Happening

Track 20 on Anthology (1986)

Producers

Mar. 20, 19671 viewer7.5K views

The Happening Lyrics

[Verse 1]
Hey, life, look at me
I can see the reality
'Cause when you shook me, took me out of my world
I woke up
Suddenly I just woke up to the happening
When you find that you left the future behind
'Cause when you got a tender love
You don't take care of
Then you better beware of the happening

[Chorus]
One day you're up, then you turn around
You find your world is tumbling down
It happened to me, and it can happen to you

[Verse 2]
I was sure, I felt secure
Until love took a detour
Yeah, riding high on top of the world
It happened, suddenly it just happened
I saw my dreams fall apart
When love walked away from my heart
And when you lose that precious love you need
To guide you
Something happens inside you, the happening

[Chorus]
Now I see life for what it is
It's not all dreams, ooh, it's not all bliss
It happened to me and it can happen to you

[Bridge]
Once
Ooh, and then it happened
Ooh, and then it happened
Ooh, and then it happened
Ooh, and then it happened

[Verse 3]
Is it real, is it fake
Is this game of life a mistake?
'Cause when I lost the love I thought was mine
For certain, suddenly I started hurting
I saw the light too late
When that fickle finger of fate
Yeah, came and broke my pretty balloon
I woke up
Suddenly I just woke up to the happening

[Chorus]
So sure, I felt secure
Until love took a detour
'Cause when you got a tender love you don't
Take care of, then you better beware of

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What did The Supremes say about "The Happening"?

In this particular case it was for the movie The Happening with Anthony Quinn and Faye Dunaway, and we wrote it because of the title. Frank DeVol, it was his music that had to do a lot with that. He had partial music already written, so we took that feeling that he had and added our own interpretation and added melodies and whatever we had to do to make it a pop song. That’s why you’ll find his name on the credits, because he was responsible for some of the music.

But with a movie, sometimes you can be too close by doing the title, and you just write around the subject matter of the movie. You want to take that assignation and put it into the song lyric, and try to adapt to the feeling of the overall movie.