Happy, was one of a series of duets Motown released on Rick James and Teena Marie, during the early 1980’s. While Rick James was already an established star, Teena Marie, real name Mary Christine Brockert, had only recently been signed to Motown by Berry Gordy, as one of the few white female singers on the company’s roster. She would go on to have several solo albums produced by Motown until she left the company in 1983 over a contractual dispute about releasing her own new material. She won a lawsuit against Motown that made it illegal for a record company to keep an artist under contract without releasing new material for that artist.
