1940 song copyrighted and published by Jimmie Davis and Charles Mitchell
"
You Are My Sunshine
" is an American
standard
of
Old-time
and
Country music
and one of the official
state songs
of
Louisiana
. Its original writer is disputed.
[2]
[3]
[4]
According to the
performance rights organisation
BMI
, by the year 2000 the song had been recorded by over 350 artists and translated into 30 languages.
[5]
Written and recorded as early as 1939, the song was first published and copyrighted in 1940 by
Jimmie Davis
and
Charles Mitchell
. Davis went on to be
governor of Louisiana
from 1944 to 1948 and again from 1960 to 1964, and used the song for his election campaign.
[3]
In 1977, the Louisiana State Legislature decreed "You Are My Sunshine" the state song in honor of Davis.
[6]
Its best-known covers include a recording by
Johnny Cash
in 1989.
[7]
In 1999, "You Are My Sunshine" was honored with a
Grammy Hall of Fame
award, and the
Recording Industry Association of America
named it one of the
Songs of the Century
. In 2003, it was ranked as No. 73 on
CMT's 100 Greatest Songs in Country Music
.
[8]
History
Earliest performances and recordings
The Pine Ridge Boys (Marv Taylor and Doug Spivey) recorded the song under the title "You Are My Sunshine" on August 22, 1939, and released it on October 6, 1939, for Bluebird Records. The song was recorded in Atlanta, Georgia, where the Pine Ridge Boys were from.
[11]
No songwriter was listed.
The Rice Brothers' Gang recorded the song next for Decca, on September 13, 1939,
[12]
and released it the following month. This group was originally from Northern Georgia but relocated to Shreveport, Louisiana, where they performed on the radio station
KWKH
. The songwriter was listed as "Paul Rice". Paul and Hoke Rice sold the music to Jimmie Davis and Charles Mitchell shortly before 1940.
[4]
Copyright and publication
On January 30, 1940, "You Are My Sunshine" was copyrighted by Davis and Mitchell and published by Southern Music Publishing Co., Inc. of New York.
[13]
The pair recorded the song on February 5, 1940, at Decca Studios in New York.
[14]
Both received song-writing credit and when the copyright was renewed on February 2, 1967, both of their names were on it.
[15]
Southern Music Publishing Co., Inc.
is still run by the Peer Family, though BMI now lists it under American Performing Rights Society, Inc., also known by its acronym, APRS, c/o Peermusic.
[16]
[17]
Claims of ownership
According to a November 1990 article by Theodore Pappas, in
Chronicles Magazine
,
the true writer of the song was Oliver Hood of
LaGrange, Georgia
.
[18]
The name of the article is "The Theft of an American Classic".
[19]
He asserts that Davis never actually claimed authorship because he bought the song, along with all the rights, from Paul Rice before copyrighting and publishing?a practice not uncommon in the pre-
World War II
music business.
[2]
Though some early versions of the song credit the Rice Brothers, descendants, and associates of Oliver Hood, a musician who collaborated with Rice, state that Hood wrote the song in the early 1930s and first performed it in 1933, at a
Veterans of Foreign Wars
convention at LaGrange.
[2]
A newspaper article in the Shreveport Times related, "On a day in 1939?no one seems to remember the exact date?Charles Mitchell and Jimmie Davis called the station KWKH to see Paul Rice (who was playing there at the time). Paul's wife was in the hospital and he needed cash to pay her bills. He sold 'Sunshine' to Davis and Mitchell for $35. Each put in $17.50."
[20]
Paul Rice said, "I wrote 'You Are My Sunshine' in 1937. Where I got the idea for it, a girl over in South Carolina wrote me this long letter?it was long about seventeen pages. And she was talking about how I was her sunshine. I got the idea for the song and put a tune to it."
According to Rice, "At least 20 people claimed to have written 'You Are My Sunshine'. I had a gal write me from California that she wrote it."
[2]
Davis lived to be 101 years old and gave several conflicting accounts. When interviewed by Dorothy Horstman for her 1975 book
Sing Your Heart Out Country Boy
,
[21]
he didn't claim authorship of the song, but instead related its history of popularity.
Tony Russell states, "Though Mitchell's name appears on the copyright listing, he had already sold his half-share to Davis."
[13]
This is not reflected in the records of the United States Copyright Archives, which give the name, date and renewal number, "Charles Mitchell (A); 2Feb67; R403742".
[22]
Chart performance
"You Are My Sunshine" was one of Jimmie Davis' biggest-selling records (one source claims it was "among the top five country music recordings of that year"),
[2]
and it has enjoyed continual success since. In 1940, the Vocalion version by
Bob Atcher and Bonnie Blue Eyes
, released in February, went to number 1 on the embryonic Billboard Top Hillbilly Recordings of the Month (July 27, 1940, issue).
[24]
Perhaps thanks to the popularity of the Davis and Atcher versions, the original 1939 recording by The Pine Ridge Boys peaked at number 4 on October 26, 1940.
[25]
Wayne King and his Orchestra
recorded the first version to hit the popular music chart on September 4, and reached number 19 on November 9, 1940.
[26]
On March 14, 1941, the
Gene Autry
movie
Back in the Saddle
debuted with Autry singing "You Are My Sunshine" along with his signature song, "
Back In The Saddle Again
." On June 18, he recorded "You Are My Sunshine" at
CBS Columbia Square
Studio,
Hollywood
,
California
, and it was released July 10 on
Okeh Records
.
[27]
On July 8, 1941
(
1941-07-08
)
, Bing Crosby recorded his version at
Decca Recording Studios
,
New York City
, also released in July. Both recordings made the National Best-Selling Charts,
[26]
with Autry going to number 1 on the Billboard Top Hillbilly Recordings chart on September 27,
[28]
where he remained for over 20 weeks into January 1942. Autry's version remained on the chart for much of 1942,
[29]
finally bowing out after 50 weeks.
[30]
In January 1951,
Columbia
released a version of "You Are My Sunshine" by
Doris Day
as a singer and
polka
musician
Frankie Yankovic
. It was assessed by
Billboard
as "good" but did not make it onto the charts.
[31]
In 1962, a version by
Ray Charles
, with
the Raelettes
and
Margie Hendrix
, reached number one on the
Billboard
Hot R&B Singles
chart and number 7 on its
Hot 100
chart.
[32]
Appearances
In the 1997
The Simpsons
episode "
The Secret War of Lisa Simpson
",
Marge Simpson
sends a recording of herself singing "You Are My Sunshine" to her daughter, who is
homesick
while enrolled in a
military school
.
[33]
Sam Scott of
Looper
called it "one of the most powerful moments of melancholy beauty in a series that got them down to an art form."
[34]
In 2000, the song was featured in the movie
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
by the
Coen brothers
.
In March 2020, British choirmaster
Gareth Malone
announced a new initiative titled the
Great British Home Chorus
, a new
home choir
for people internationally while 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
charity single
, with all the profits being donated to
NHS Charities Together
.
[35]
Recognition
After Davis' second term as governor, his admirers were disappointed when Gov.
John McKeithen
vetoed a bill in 1968 that would have made "You Are My Sunshine" Louisiana's official song. The reason was that the song said not a word about Louisiana.
Virginia Shehee
, a long-time Davis family friend and member of the
Louisiana State Senate
from 1976 to 1980, re-introduced legislation to make "You Are My Sunshine" the official state song.
[36]
In 1977, the Legislature decreed that "You Are My Sunshine" would share honors as the state song with "Give Me Louisiana" by Doralice Fontane.
[37]
As the millennium drew near, Hall of Fame organizations started drawing up lists to honor the best music of the 20th century. On September 2, 1992,
Country America
magazine designated "You Are My Sunshine" 35th on its Top 100 Country Songs of All-Time list. Next, it was among the pre-1950 records selected to join the Grammy Hall of Fame on February 24, 1999. On June 17, groundbreaking ceremonies were held for the new Country Music Hall of Fame in downtown Nashville, and the event included a guitar marching band, led by
Chet Atkins
, playing "Wildwood Flower" and "You Are My Sunshine".
In 2000, the Songwriter's Hall of Fame chose Davis' version of "You Are My Sunshine" to receive its Towering Song Award.
[38]
[39]
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) published their list of the top 365 "Songs Of The Century" on March 7, 2001, and "You Are My Sunshine" placed #14.
[40]
The Country Music Foundation published "Heartaches By The Number" celebrating country's "500 greatest singles" on March 14, 2003, with "You Are My Sunshine" by Jimmie Davis on the list. On June 8, 2003, it ranked #73 on CMT's "100 Greatest Songs Of Country Music". On March 21, 2013, the
National Recording Registry
of the
Library of Congress
added it for long-term preservation.
[41]
The song also became part of a
cultural phenomenon
in 2024, surging in popularity after it was part of an
internet meme
featuring
LeBron James
, in which
Christina Perri's
cover of the song is played over a heavily edited portrait photo of James himself behind an extremely glaring background; James is
referred
to as the
sunshine
. Although it is unclear who first paired the video edit, the meme is intended to mock
obsessive and defensive fans
of James.
[42]
[43]
[44]
[45]
[46]
As a result, the meme became an influence for other similar memes, including "LeEvil James", a contrast to the original meme in another photoshopped image of James, but rather in a creepier and obscure aspect, and a slowed version of Perri's cover, along with fans
spamming
comments regarding James on social media platforms, calling him "honey" and "pookie bear", and posting the lyrics of the song.
[47]
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{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link
)
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