Video hit Garbage

Garbage - Only Happy When It Rains

Only Happy When It Rains is a song written and produced by alternative rock group Garbage for the band's self-titled debut studio album. The song was recorded at the band's own recording studio, Smart Studios, in Madison, Wisconsin, being mixed twice before its release. The bleak content of the lyrics was intended as a parody of the angst filled themes present in mid-1990s alternative rock, as well as a sarcastic reference to Garbage's own preference for darker themes.

"Only Happy When it Rains" was released as the third single from the campaign for Garbage in both the United Kingdom (in September 1995) and North America (in February 1996), being issued in three formats vinyl, CD maxi, and cassette.

The song received positive reviews, praising the production and Shirley Manson's singing, and became the band's breakthrough single, charting strongly on both the UK Singles Chart and Billboard Hot 100. It also crossover to pop radio formats, propelling their debut album into the Top 100 of the Billboard 200 for the first time, and the song's music video, directed by Samuel Bayer, received much airplay on MTV. "Only Happy When it Rains" has gone onto to be an enduring work for the group, being featured in the video game Guitar Hero 5 and receiving covers by Richard Cheese, Katerina Graham and Metallica.

The song's bleak lyrics were explained by Marker as a mockery of the angsty "wearing your heart on your sleeve thing" themes prevalent in mid-1990s alternative rock songs, as well as a self-deprecating reference to Garbage's own dark lyrics, with Manson explaining that the song was "a dig at ourselves because we like records that don't make us feel very happy, and at this so-called 'alternative' scene of 'we're so weird and more wonderful than everybody else'". Vig added that "'Only Happy When It Rains' was about what happened with grunge and the angst-filled thing which has dominated the American alternative rock scene. With us there's self-deprecation, we have to poke fun at ourselves because we're so incredibly obsessive about the songs and the lyrics, which makes us filled with self-loathing, hurhur."

Garbage admitted to referencing both the title of the The Jesus and Mary Chain song "Happy When It Rains" (1987) and Manson's own Scottish psyche.

Lyrically, Manson described "Only Happy When It Rains" as "about wanting love but knowing life will always get in the way.... yet not being obliterated by that. It's a song for people that know what it is like to live on the dark side of life. It's about devotion but a different kind. A devotion to the truth and to freedom... and to hell with the consequences."

The lyrics:

I'm only happy when it rains

I'm only happy when it's complicated

And though I know you can't appreciate it

I'm only happy when it rains

You know I love it when the news is bad

Why it feels so good to feel so sad

I'm only happy when it rains

Pour your misery down

Pour your misery down on me

Pour your misery down

Pour your misery down on me

I'm only happy when it rains

I feel good when things are going wrong

I only listen to the sad, sad songs

I'm only happy when it rains

I only smile in the dark

My only comfort is the night gone black

I didn't accidentally tell you that

I'm only happy when it rains

You'll get the message by the time I'm through

When I complain about me and you

I'm only happy when it rains

Pour your misery down...pour your misery down

Pour your misery down on me...pour your misery down

Pour your misery down...pour your misery down

Pour your misery down on me...pour your misery down

Pour your misery down...pour your misery down

Pour your misery down on me...pour your misery down

Pour your misery down...pour

You can keep me company

As long as you don't care

I'm only happy when it rains

You want to hear about my new obsession

I'm riding high upon a deep depression

I'm only happy when it rains...pour some misery down on me

I'm only happy when it rains....pour some misery down on me

I'm only happy when it rains...pour some misery down on me

I'm only happy when it rains...pour some misery down on me

I'm only happy when it rains...pour some misery down on me...pour some misery down on me...pour some misery down on me...pour some misery down on me.