From Singing Cowboys to Kitchen Appliances: The Long Strange Trip of ‘You Are My Sunshine’
Abstract:
‘You Are My Sunshine’ was published in January 1940, credited to Jimmie Davis and Charles Mitchell, although its authorship remains a matter of dispute. Following Davis’s 1940 recording, ‘You Are My Sunshine’ was widely popularized by Gene Autry, the archetype of the singing cowboy, an enormously popular but much-maligned musical form of the 1930s and 1940s. The song went on to be a huge hit, and was recorded consistently throughout the 1940s and 1950s by a wide range of performers, including Lawrence Welk, Kate Smith, Doris Day, Duane Eddy, and Ricky Nelson. The song was also recorded by a number of jazz musicians, including Les Brown, Nat King Cole, and Toots Thielemans, and was featured in a unique arrangement by the composer and bandleader George Russell.
Since the 1960s, ‘You Are My Sunshine’ has been subjected to a remarkable number of different readings and cover versions, reworked and reshaped to the demands of an apparently endless catalogue of styles and genres, from soul, surf rock and ska to bossa nova, bluegrass, and punk. And perhaps somewhat surprisingly, given its singing cowboy origins, the song has also established itself as a rather unlikely standard song in the jazz repertoire. In more recent decades, ‘You Are My Sunshine’ has become firmly ensconced in the public imagination as a children’s song – a somewhat curious phenomenon, given the dark nature of the lyrics. And in the early years of the twenty-first century, ‘You Are My Sunshine’ appeared in television commercials, supporting children’s charity fundraising and enlisted in selling Whirlpool domestic appliances, with the aid of the somewhat dark version of the song by Johnny Cash. In this paper, I chart the historical, musical, and semantic trajectory of ‘You Are My Sunshine,’ noting both its unprecedented ubiquity and remarkable resilience, suggesting that few other songs have achieved such levels of circulation and recognition.
Biography
Alan Stanbridge is an Associate Professor in Music and Culture at the University of Toronto, teaching courses on Critical Issues in Music and Society and Jazz History. He also teaches in the Master of Museum Studies Program. He has published numerous articles and book chapters on popular music and jazz history, and his recently completed book, Rhythm Changes: Jazz, Culture, Discourse, will be published by Routledge in 2020. In a previous life, Stanbridge pursued a 15-year career in professional arts management and music promotion in the UK, during which time he held the post of Director of the Glasgow International Jazz Festival.
Hi Alan,
Thanks for your paper. ” … a slightly shop-worn Las Vegas floor show” [insert laughing emoji here]. Actually, that recording by Yuji Ohno reminded me of another Las Vegas-style moment, which is the scene in A Hard Day’s Night where the song “I’m Happy Just to Dance With You” is rearranged for Lionel Blair and the showgirls — do you know the one I mean? I seem to recall you were interested in jazz or jazz-related musics in British cinema at one time … I don’t really have a clear question but I wonder if there’s more to be said about this middlebrow-ification or even adult-ification of songs that are (or have come to be) associated with children or teen audiences? And what happens to those depressing undertones on the journey from dark country to children’s music to easy listening?
Sorry not to be clearer — just trying to pull a few ideas together.
Cheers,
Mimi
Hi Mimi,
Thanks for your comments! Ah, Lionel Blair – so many happy memories… To be honest, I’d forgotten that scene but was able to remind myself through the magic of YouTube. And yes, I’m completely with you on this one – there’s a significant research project in there somewhere. (Of course, there’s an element of critique in the Blair moment, but that just makes it doubly interesting).
And the point you make seems closely related to the ‘rock goes classical’ trend. Not so much the ELP does Mussorgsky or Deep Purple at the Albert Hall sort of thing (although there’s still much more to be said on that…), but more the LSO does Jethro Tull (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hqwOSmYydY), or the RPO does Pink Floyd (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv7zevCQ7tw), or the LPO does Led Zeppelin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsD8f-N8gzg – poor quality upload, but you get the gist). I play some of this stuff in class, (often literally) holding my nose, but some students clearly enjoy it, and ask me about it afterwards. (And note one of the YouTube comments: “I’m ashamed to admit it but I think I prefer the LPO to Led Zep with this one!” – which leads us into a debate about ‘guilty pleasures’, etc., etc.)
But it also highlights my own snobbishness, and although, yes, I gave myself a bit of a laugh with my Ohno Las Vegas put-down, it’s perhaps a little too easy (and hey, it was my sister’s favourite). And yes, the journey you describe is what got me so fascinated with this song in the first place. One of my colleagues made the interesting point the other day that it never seems to have been a ‘whole’ song – even Davis’s original version has a jaunty lilt to it that completely denies the darkness of the lyrics. I still haven’t quite figured out what the attraction is, and why so many people have been drawn to the song. For example, what does the Screeching Weasels version “mean”? And why a bossa nova version? (Why not?) And this is only the tip of the Sunshine iceberg – the book chapter cites over 100 versions of the song, most of which are in my Spotify Playlist for the chapter: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6ZJAOOjRfrkqKTQJ0OCMhl?si=IYPpZJ4TS868ZhZTlpD15w (Enjoy! Check out the Henry Butler version – it’s up there with Ohno).
Thanks again for sharing your thoughts!
Alan
(Oops, there I go being a snob again, Butler-wise. Sorry. But if you listen to Butler, you should also listen to Patricia Barber: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn8HCU1U_50).