You Are My Sunshine

"You Are My Sunshine" is a song popularized by Jimmie Davis and Charles Mitchell[1] in 1939. It has been declared one of the state songs of Louisiana because of its association with Davis, a country music singer and governor of the state in the years 1944–1948 and 1960–1964.

For other uses, see You Are My Sunshine (disambiguation).
"You Are My Sunshine"
Song by Simon Ravenhall
Published1939
Songwriter(s)

The song has been recorded numerous times—so often, in fact, that it is "one of the most commercially programmed numbers in American popular music".[2] The song, originally country music, has "virtually lost" its original country music identity, and "represent[s] both the national flowering of country music and its eventual absorption into the mainstream of American popular culture."[2] In 1941, it was recorded by Gene Autry, Bing Crosby,[3] Mississippi John Hurt, Wayne King and Lawrence Welk.[2] The versions by Autry, Crosby, and King reached the US charts of the day.[4]

In subsequent years, it was recorded by Doris Day (1951), Nat King Cole (1955), The Marcels (1961), Ray Charles (1962), Ike & Tina Turner, The Rivingtons (1962), Andy Williams (1963), Burl Ives (1968), Frank Turner, The Beach Boys, Aretha Franklin, Anne Murray (1979), Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Norman Blake, Brian Wilson, Mouse and the Traps, Gene Vincent, Jamey Johnson, Low, Mose Allison, Bryan Ferry, Carly Simon, Papa Winnie (1989), Madeline Eastman, Yusuf Islam, Copeland, Johnny and the Hurricanes, and Barbra Lica (2012), amongst many others.[2]

The 1940 version by Davis was added to the National Recording Registry in the Library of Congress on March 21, 2013, for long-term preservation.[5]

Virginia Shehee, a long-time Davis family friend and member of the Louisiana State Senate from 1976 to 1980, introduced legislation to make "You Are My Sunshine" the official state song.[6]

Earliest performances and recordings

Pine Ridge Boys; Rice Brothers Gang; Carter Family
  • The Pine Ridge Boys
  • The Rice Brothers Gang

The Pine Ridge Boys recorded the song under the title "You Are My Sunshine" on August 22, 1939 and released in September 1939 for Bluebird Records (RCA-Victor's budget label) on August 22, 1939. The Boys (Marvin Taylor and Doug Spivey) were from Atlanta.[7][8]

The Rice Brothers Gang recorded the song for Decca Records on September 13, 1939, by [9] This group was originally from north Georgia but relocated to Shreveport, where they were performing on the radio station KWKH.

The Carters performed "You Are My Sunshine" during a January 1, 1939 border radio broadcast.[10][11][12] (The lyrics of "You Are My Sunshine" mirror in some ways those of a song written by A. P. Carter in 1934 entitled "Happy and Lonesome"[13] and on this broadcast the Carters performed both. The first verse of the former begins, "Come back to me in my dreaming/Come back to me once more/Come with the love light gleaming/As in the days of yore."[14])

Jimmie Davis
Jimmie Davis with Charles Mitchell's Orchestra

The version by Jimmie Davis was recorded for Decca Records on February 5, 1940.[15]

Authorship

According to Theodore Pappas, in a November 1990 article in Chronicles Magazine, the author was Oliver Hood of LaGrange, Georgia.[16][17]

Whereas Davis and Mitchell are usually credited songwriters of "You Are My Sunshine", Davis was never known actually to claim authorship, as he bought the song and rights from Paul Rice and put his own name on it, a practice not uncommon in the pre-World War II music business,[18] though some early versions of the song credit it to the Rice Brothers. Descendants and associates of Oliver Hood, a LaGrange, Georgia, musician who collaborated with Rice, state that Hood wrote the song in the early 1930s and first performed it at a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention at LaGrange, Georgia, in 1933.[18]

According to OffBeat magazine,[19] clarinetist Pud Brown was also involved with the Rice Brothers for the song's origin or first arrangement. Davis said that for some time he had been enthusiastic about the song and had unsuccessfully tried to convince record companies to record it before finally making his own 1940 record of the song. Davis' version was popular and was followed by numerous other versions, including those of Bing Crosby and Gene Autry, whose versions made the number a big hit. Davis emphasized his association with the song when running for governor of Louisiana in 1944, singing it at all his campaign rallies while riding on a horse named "Sunshine".[2]

Discography

Cinema

Radio
  • On January 1, 1939, the Carter Family performed the song for broadcast on a border radio station.[10]
  • The song was used as part of the theme to the BBC Radio comedy show Ray's a Laugh, which began in 1949 and starred Ted Ray.

Television
  • In the 2016 TV series Bloodline, Robert Rayburn frequently strums the song on his ukulele and sings it throughout season 1,[30][31] and in season 2, episode 9 (airdate May 28, 2017) Evangeline sings it to Nolan and Sally.
  • In March 2020, British choirmaster Gareth Malone announced a new initiative titled the Great British Home Chorus, a new home choir for people internationally whilst everyone was stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. For the finale, Malone orchestrated a choral version of "You Are My Sunshine", with over 11,000 singers taking part, accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra. The song was released as a single, with all the profits being donated to NHS Charities Together.[32]

Sports

See also
  • List of number-one R&B singles of 1962 (U.S.)
  • List of number-one R&B singles of 1963 (U.S.)

Sources
  • Joel Whitburn Presents Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942–2004, 2004 (Record Research) pg. 113

References
  1. CD liner notes: Disney Children's Favorites 4, 1990 Disney Records
  2. Deusner, Stephen (May 26, 2013). "'You Are My Sunshine': How a Maudlin Song Became a Children's Classic". Salon.com.
  3. "A Bing Crosby Discography". BING magazine. International Club Crosby. Retrieved June 22, 2017.
  4. Whitburn, Joel (1986). Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories 1890-1954. Wisconsin, USA: Record Research Inc. p. 615. ISBN 0-89820-083-0.
  5. "Simon & Garfunkel Song Among Those to Be Preserved by Library of Congress". Huntington Post. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
  6. "Virginia Ruth Kilpatrick Shehee". The Shreveport Times. Retrieved July 9, 2015.
  7. "Performance: You Are My Sunshine by The Pine Ridge Boys | SecondHandSongs". secondhandsongs.com. Retrieved 2020-08-20.
  8. Russell, Tony, and Bob Pinson. Country Music Records: A Discography, 1921–1942 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 697.
  9. Russell, Tony, and Bob Pinson. Country Music Records: A Discography, 1921–1942 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 746.
  10. "The Carter Family on Border Radio 1939 (Volume 3)" (PDF). folkways-media.si.edu. 1999. Retrieved 2020-08-20.
  11. "The Carter Family On Border Radio, Vol. 3". amazon.com. Retrieved 2020-08-20.
  12. "You Are My Sunshine/Happy Or Lonesome by The Carter Family". www.song-list.net. Retrieved 2020-08-20.
  13. "The Carter Family - Happy Or Lonesome / The East Virginia Blues". Discogs. Retrieved 2020-08-20.
  14. "The Carter Family - Happy Or Lonesome Lyrics". musiXmatch. Retrieved 2020-08-20.
  15. Russell, Tony, and Bob Pinson. Country Music Records: A Discography, 1921–1942 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 304.
  16. "Rosemont Records, Inc". www.rosemontrecords.com. Retrieved 2020-08-20.
  17. "Who Owns "You Are My Sunshine"?". sub-Q Magazine. 2015-09-29. Retrieved 2020-08-20.
  18. Pappas, Theodore (November 1990). "The 'Theft' of an American Classic". Chronicles. The Rockford Institute.
  19. Jeff Hannusch (October 1, 2009). "Classic Songs of Louisiana: 'You Are My Sunshine'". OffBeat.
  20. "You Are My Sunshine - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 2020-08-20.
  21. The Civil Wars – You Are My Sunshine, retrieved 2020-08-20
  22. "Miley Cyrus - You Are My Sunshine (Song) - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 2020-08-20.
  23. April 12, Chuck ArmstrongPublished; 2016. "Dave Cobb Discusses the Stapletons' 'You Are My Sunshine'". The Boot. Retrieved 2020-08-20.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  24. Writer, Anna Haas | Staff. "New EP by Frank Iero and the Patience features raw reworkings of old songs". The Red and Black. Retrieved 2020-08-20.
  25. "The Voice's Brennan Lassiter Had Gwen Stefani Offering a 2 for 1 Deal". Life & Style. 2019-09-24. Retrieved 2020-08-20.
  26. Berger, John (March 19, 2020). "Island Mele: Jaxon celebrates love". Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Retrieved 2020-08-20.
  27. Lowe, Leslie (1992). Directory of Popular Music (3rd ed.). Hastings, UK: Music Master. p. 355. ISBN 0-904520-70-6.
  28. Reynolds, Fred (1986). The Crosby Collection 1926-1977 (Part Two ed.). Gateshead, UK: John Joyce. p. 220.
  29. Burchard, Jeremy. "How 'O Brother Where Art Thou?' Made America Fall Back in Love with Bluegrass". Wide Open Country. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
  30. Rooney, David. "'Bloodline': Berlin Review". The Hollywood Reporter.
  31. Ramos, Dino-Ray (July 31, 2017). "Sam Shepard: 'Bloodline' Co-Stars, Nancy Meyers, Reese Witherspoon Remember Legendary Actor-Writer". Deadline Hollywood.
  32. Shaw Roberts, Maddy (31 July 2020). "11,000 voices sing 'You Are My Sunshine' in heartwarming finale to Gareth Malone's lockdown choir". Classic FM. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  33. "Roberto Martinez leads Wigan FA Cup celebrations". BBC Sport. 20 May 2013. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
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