NRR Project: “You Are My Sunshine”
Music and lyrics by: disputed
Performed by Jimmie Davis with Charles Mitchell’s
Orchestra
Recorded 1940
2:40
I must point you to Ronnie Pugh’s essay on this song at theNational Recording Registry. It is excellent!
Jimmie Davis (1899-2000) was an aspiring performer and an aspiring politician as well. Born and raised in Louisiana, he made his name in the early 1930s with songs such as “Nobody’s Darling But Mine” and “It Makes No Difference Now.” He parlayed his singing notoriety into two non-consecutive terms as Louisiana’s governor.
He heard the song “You Are My Sunshine” when its purported creator, Paul Rice, played it for him in 1939. Rice sold the song to Davis and Charles Mitchell for $35 – he needed the money for his wife’s hospital bill. (It was routine at the time for performers to buy songs from songwriters and take over the copyright themselves.)
The song is plaintive, and the lyrics are sad. However, the chorus is, pardon the expression, sunny. The song has been planted in our consciousness so strongly that it is difficult to remember that it is a classic country song. It has been recorded by more than 350 artists and has been translated into 30 languages.
I used to sing this little ditty to my children at bedtime – and so it passes on to the next generation.
The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: the ‘original’ cast album of ‘Porgy and Bess.’
No comments:
Post a Comment