Pharrell Williams has found immense success with his Oscar-nominated single “Happy,” but he’s now revealing that former Voice coach Cee Lo Green actually recorded it first.
Williams appeared on Howard Stern’s Sirius XM radio show on Tuesday and revealed Green almost released it but ultimately didn’t think it was the right fit for his career at that particular time.
“It didn’t fit his agenda. He had bigger fish to fry. He had an album to put out,” Williams told the shock jock, EW reports. When Stern pressed for more details, saying he didn’t exactly answer the question of why Green didn’t release it - he admitted he “danced around” the question “pretty good though.”
“He was totally down with it,” Williams said, hinting it was Green’s record label that wouldn’t release it and not his decision. “And he sounded amazing. I mean he burns my version.”
According to The Guardian, Williams admitted the “powers that be” decided not to release it through Green.
“How do I say this diplomatically? Um ... he ... um ... The powers that be, at the time, did not see it fit for him. Some folks on his team just felt that the priority should be on [Cee Lo's] album at the time, so they elected not to do that song,” he said.
Williams has shown how grateful he is for the success of the song, even crying about it during an interview with Oprah Winfrey recently.