Bring Me Sunshine

Although the second verse was often performed by an orchestra conducted by Peter Knight over the duo's closing credits, they only ever sang the first verse, the second one being purely instrumental, with Eric and Ernie performing a "skip dance" to exit the stage. The dance has been attributed to BBC producer, John Ammonds,[5] and Eric's son Gary recalls that the inspiration for the skip-dance came from a Groucho Marx film sequence.[6]

When Eric Morecambe died in 1984 so closely associated were the pair with the song that it was the title of the Bring Me Sunshine tribute show at the London Palladium held in his memory. Ten years later, the BBC ran another 3-part tribute, also titled Bring Me Sunshine.

Lyrics to the song were also read at Morecambe's funeral by Ernie Wise.[7] Wise went on to declare it his favourite song during his appearance on the BBC radio programme, Desert Island Discs in Oct 1990.[8] On the same programme three months later, the song was also a choice of jazz singer Adelaide Hall,[9] and has since been the choice of several other guests including Dawn French[10] and Rankin.[11] It has also been used for the title of several books about the pair.

When Morecambe & Wise defected from the BBC to Thames Television in 1978, directly after their record-breaking Christmas Special the previous year, the signature tune was dropped. It was however used in later instalments of these shows.

In 2011, the BBC used the song in a promotional clip for the 75th anniversary of its main channel, beginning with the familiar opening shot of Morecambe & Wise before leading into a montage of other famous moments from the channel's history, most of which were edited so as to lip-sync with the song.[12]

The song has also been recorded by:

• 1969 Brenda Lee, on her album, Johnny One Time.[15]
• 1969 Jack Greene, on his album, Statue of a Fool.[16]
• 1970 Chet Atkins, on his album, Yestergroovin'.[17]
• 1971 Liz Damon's Orient Express, on their eponymous album.[18]
• 1974 Willie Nelson, on his album, Spotlight on Willie Nelson.[19]
• 1978 Mickey Gilley, on his album, Mickey at Gilleys.[20]
• 1999 Cliff Adams Singers, on their album, Sing Something Simple Collection: Sentimental Journey.[21]
• 2003 Mrs Mills (Gladys Mills), on her album, The Very Best of Mrs. Mills.[22]
• 2006 Richard Shelton, on his album, Top Cat.[23]
• 2010 Foster & Allen, on their album of the same name, which peaked at number 14 in March 2011 in the New Zealand charts.[24]
• 2011 Oleg Frish with Patrick Williams & His Big Band, on the album, Bring Me Sunshine.[25]
• 2012 The Jive Aces on their album King of the Swingers: A Salute to Louis Prima[26]
• 2014 Violetta Zironi for the TV commercial of the popular Italian brand of cookies Pavesini.[27]
• 2017 Michael Ball & Alfie Boe with the Rays of Sunshine Children's Choir & Friends to raise money for the Rays of Sunshine Children's Charity

• Ken Bruce and his then travel reporter Lynn Bowles recorded a version for charity.