Verb: That's What's Happening

Verb: That's What's Happening
General information
Feature films	Grammar Rock
Shows	Schoolhouse Rock!
Composer	Bob Dorough
Lyrics	Bob Dorough
Performers	Zachary Sanders (background vocals by the Pointer Sisters)
Other performers	Ne-Yo
Video

"Verb: That's What's Happening" is a song in Schoolhouse Rock!, which can be seen in Grammar Rock. The song teaches us about verbs. The song is also famous for bringing us the first animated black superhero, Verb.

Lyrics

I get my thing in action
(Verb!)
To be, to see, to feel, to live
(Verb! That's what's happenin')

I put my heart in action
(Verb!)
To run, to go, to get, to give
(Verb! You're what's happenin')

That's where I find satisfaction, yeah!
(Yeah!)
To search, to find, to have, to hold
(Verb! To be bold)

When I use my imagination
(Verb!)
I think, I plot, I plan, I dream
Turning in toward creation
(Verb!)
I make, I write, I dance, I sing
When I'm feeling really active
(Verb!)
I run, I ride, I swim, I fly!
Other times when life is easy
(Oh!)
I rest, I sleep, I sit, I lie

(Verb! That's what's happenin')

I can take a noun and bend it, gimme a noun -
(Bat, boat, rake, and plow)
Make it a verb and really send it!
(Show me how)
Oh, I don't know my own power
(Verb!)

I get my thing in action
(Verb!)
In being,
(Verb!)
In doing,
(Verb!)
In saying...

A verb expresses action, being, or state of being.
(A verb makes a statement!)
Yeah, a verb tells it like it is!

(Verb! That's what's happenin')
I can tell you when it's happening,
(Past, present, future tense)
Ooh! Tell you more about what's happening,
(Say it so it makes some sense)
I can tell you who is happening!
(Verb, you're so intense)
Hey! Every sentence has a subject
(Noun: person, place, or thing)
Find that subject: Where's the action?
(Verb can make a subject sing)
Take the subject: What is it?
(What!)
What's done to it?
(What!)
What does it say?
(Verb, you're what's happenin')

Ooh! I can question like: What is it?
(Verb, you're so demanding)
I can order like: Go get it!
(Verb, you're so commanding)
When I hit I need an object
(Verb, hit! Hit the ball!)
When I see, I see the object
(Do you see that farthest wall?)

If you can see it there, put the ball over the fence, man!
Go ahead on! Yeah, alright. What?! He hit it.
It's goin'... It's goin'... It's gone! (What!)

I get my thing in action
(Verb! That's what's happenin')
Huh! To work,
(Verb!)
To play,
(Verb!)
To live,
(Verb!)
To love...
(Verb!...)

Gallery

Tommy hugs his Mother

Trivia

• Dave Frishberg originally wrote a song titled "World Without Verbs", which would have showcased how there would not be much action without verbs. But when Bob Dorough wrote the action-oriented "Verb: That's What's Happening", Frishberg's song was passed over.
• One of the buildings near the movie theater has the sign "George's Groceries", a reference to producer George Newall.
• Voted #24 on the top 25 favorite Schoolhouse Rock! songs.

v - e - d

Media Schoolhouse Rock! • Schoolhouse Rock Live! • Schoolhouse Rock! 50th Anniversary Singalong Songs Schoolhouse Rocky Multiplication: My Hero, Zero • Elementary, My Dear • Three is a Magic Number • The Four-Legged Zoo • Ready or Not, Here I Come • I Got Six • Lucky Seven Sampson • Figure Eight • Naughty Number Nine • The Good Eleven • Little Twelvetoes Grammar: Unpack Your Adjectives • Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here • Conjunction Junction • Interjections! • Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla • Verb: That's What's Happening • A Noun is a Person, Place or Thing • Busy Prepositions • The Tale of Mr. Morton America: No More Kings • Fireworks • The Shot Heard 'Round the World • The Preamble • Elbow Room • The Great American Melting Pot • Mother Necessity • Sufferin' Till Suffrage • I'm Just a Bill • Three Ring Government • I'm Gonna Send Your Vote to College • Presidential Minute Science: The Body Machine • Do the Circulation • Electricity, Electricity • The Energy Blues • Interplanet Janet • Telegraph Line • Them Not-So-Dry Bones • A Victim of Gravity • The Weather Show Money: Dollars and Sense • $7.50 Once a Week • Where the Money Goes • Tax Man Max • Walkin' on Wall Street • This for That • Tyrannosaurus Debt • The Check's in the Mail Earth: Report from the North Pole • The Little Things We Do • The Trash Can Band • You Oughta Be Saving Water • The Rainforest • Save the Ocean • Fat Cat Blue: The Clean Rivers Song • A Tiny Urban Zoo • Solar Power to the People • Windy and the Windmills • Don't Be a Carbon Sasquatch • The Three R's Scooter Computer and Mr. Chips Theme • Hardware • Software • Number Cruncher Characters Schoolhouse Rocky • Lucky Seven Sampson • Bill • Interplanet Janet