The 10 Most Joyful Songs, Backed by Research

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1. 'Don’t Stop Me Now' // Queen

2. 'Dancing Queen' // ABBA

3. 'Good Vibrations' // The Beach Boys

4. 'Uptown Girl' // Billy Joel

5. 'Eye of the Tiger' // Survivor

6. 'I’m a Believer' // The Monkees

7. 'Girls Just Want to Have Fun' // Cyndi Lauper

8. 'Livin’ on a Prayer' // Bon Jovi

9. 'I Will Survive' // Gloria Gaynor

10. 'Walking on Sunshine' // Katrina and the Waves

It’s nearly impossible to listen to Katrina and the Waves' 'Walking on Sunshine' without feeling like you're strolling on the sun itself. Similarly, ABBA's 'Dancing Queen' is guaranteed to turn you into one for about minutes. According to Baltimore radio station Mix 106.5, it's no surprise—these are two of the most uplifting tracks to ever hit the airwaves.

Years ago, the UK electronica band Alba conducted a survey among an undisclosed number of English and Irish people to identify which songs made them feel the happiest. After compiling the most popular responses, the band sent the list to Dutch neuroscientist Jacob Jolij for further analysis. On his website, Jolij pointed out that musical preferences are 'highly personal and depend on social context and individual associations,' and that his work was more about 'data crunching' than 'hardcore science.' However, he was able to uncover some common patterns. He found the average tempo of the most popular songs was between 140 and 150 beats per minute, notably faster than the typical pop song. While a few of the songs were in a minor key, most were in a major key. Jolij also observed that many of the lyrics were focused on positive events, such as parties or romance, or they simply 'made no sense at all.'

Jolij then combined these insights into a formula that could help assess the feel-good potential of other songs. While he emphasized that the formula was more about illustrating the idea than perfect mathematics, and since he used Alba's original list, those songs naturally scored high. When he surveyed Dutch listeners in 2016 to rate their favorite feel-good songs, the results confirmed his earlier findings: fast tempos and major keys were key factors. Songs like Queen’s 'Don’t Stop Me Now,' The Beach Boys’ 'Good Vibrations,' and The Monkees’ 'I’m a Believer' reappeared on the list, further reinforcing his conclusions [PDF].

Check out the original top 10 happiest songs below and dive deeper into Jolij’s research here.