Noted Immortal Pharrell Williams Rocks New Hat, Says CeeLo Almost Made ‘Happy’

Another day, another hat, another dozen or so videos of people and animals dancing to Pharrell Williams’ hit track “Happy,” which appears just about as immortal as the ageless music star. Last week, though, Pharrell revealed an odd fact about the endlessly popular track: it almost wasn’t Williams that made the song.

While we’re still rather enamored of Pharrell Williams’s Arby’s-style hat from the Grammys, that remarkable piece of headwear went up for auction, and so we must move on. Fortunately, Global Grind pushed out some new pics of the Pharrell out and about in an equally striking headpiece. It’s less ostentatious than the Arby’s look, but it’s still distinctive, with a kind of Pharrell-Williams-meets-Michael-Jackson-in-Smooth-Criminal flair to it.

The hats may keep changing, but one thing has remained reliable for nigh on a year: people can’t get enough of Pharrell’s “Happy.” The song is ageless, with each new day appearing to bring yet another fan-made video celebrating the track. The newest popped up courtesy of CBS San Francisco, which pointed out Bay Area native animal trainer Robert Dollwet’s own tribute to the track. Dollwet’s “Happy” video seems to be the perfect confluence of Internets, with dogs and cats swimming and running about while Pharrell’s track plays. With this video, let’s all agree: we’ve reached Peak Happy.

That doesn’t mean we’re anywhere near hearing the end of the song. Like we said, it’s apparently as ageless as Pharrell’s own face – Williams is supposedly 41, though right-thinking folk have figured out that he is either a vampire or has a fantastic face-washing routine.

But while Pharrell’s hit tune may show no signs of slowing down, Pharrell revealed last week that he almost didn’t even make the song. Talking with Howard Stern in a radio interview on Tuesday, Williams said that CeeLo Green had actually recorded a version of the track.

“[CeeLo] did do it,” Williams told Stern, who had asked whether Pharrell had considered passing the song on to another artist after writing it. “But… how do I say this diplomatically? The powers that be, at the time, did not see it fit for him. He wanted to do it. But I think some folks on his team just felt that the priority should have been on [CeeLo’s] album at the time, so they elected not to do that song.”

Our heads are spinning at the notion of CeeLo – he of “The Voice” and “[Forget] You” and Gnarls Barkley fame – covering Pharrell’s infectious track, but we’ll have to wait for the inevitable leaked version. And wait we will, with bated breath, because Pharrell says CeeLo’s cut was terrific.

“[CeeLo] sounded amazing on [his version],” Pharrell told Stern. “He burns my version, totally.”