Lyrics
If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands! (clap clap) If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands! (clap clap) If you're happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it. If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands! (clap clap)
#If You're Happy and You Know It at a glance
- Country of origin
- 🇺🇸 United States
- Sung in
- English
- Words by
- Traditional
- First known
- in print by the 1950s
- Best for ages
- 2–7
- Mood
- dancing, playful
- Last updated
- 25 July 2026
How to sing it
- Clap twice in the gaps, exactly where the song leaves room for them.
- Change the action each verse — stamp your feet, shout "hurray!", nod your head.
- For a last verse, string all the actions together: clap your hands, stamp your feet, and shout hurray!
Meaning and origin
This is a song that will not let a child sit still. It names a feeling and then demands you prove it — clap your hands, stamp your feet, shout hurray — filling every pause with an action, so a whole roomful of children is busy and grinning within a verse or two. Its cheerful logic is that happiness is something you do, not just something you feel.
Its history is more recent and less certain than the old nursery rhymes. It appears in American books of children’s activities and drama through the 1950s and 1960s, and in 1971 a publisher registered a copyright naming Joe Raposo — the composer behind much of the music of Sesame Street — though exactly how far back the song itself goes is unclear.
Part of its appeal is that it can grow without limit. Any action fits the frame, so the verses can pile up — clapping, then stamping, then nodding, then all of them at once in a breathless finale — which is why versions of it are sung, and happily muddled, by children all over the world.
Common questions
- Where does "If You're Happy and You Know It" come from?
- Its exact origin is uncertain. It turns up in American activity and drama books for children through the 1950s and 1960s, and in 1971 the music publisher Jonico Music registered a copyright crediting the song to Joe Raposo, the composer known for much of the music on "Sesame Street".
- How does "If You're Happy and You Know It" work?
- It is an action song: each verse names a feeling and a way to show it — clap your hands, stamp your feet, shout "hurray" — and everyone does the action in the pauses. New verses just add new actions, and the fun is in doing them together and in time.
- Is "If You're Happy and You Know It" sung in other countries?
- Widely. It has been translated and adapted around the world; the Japanese version, popularised by the singer Kyu Sakamoto, even changes the melody slightly to fit the new words.
