You Are My Sunshine

DESCRIPTION: The singer dreams his "sunshine" is in his arms but wakes to find she is not. He pleads, "don't take my sunshine away." In later verses he says she has broken her promise and left him but she'll "regret it all some day"
AUTHOR: Jimmie Davis [and Charles Miler?] (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Davis)
KEYWORDS: courting love promise rejection warning nonballad lover campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 53, 194, "You Are My Sunshine" (notes only)
DT, YOUMYSUN
Roud #18130
RECORDINGS:
Jimmie Davis, "You Are My Sunshine" (Decca 5813, 1940)
Mississippi John Hurt, "You Are My Sunshine" (on MJHurt05)
Jill MacLaughlin, John MacLaughlin, "Wait 'Till the Sun Shines, Nellie/You Are My Sunshine/Down by the Old Mill Stream" (Piotr-Archive #315, recorded 10/22/2022; the first two are chorus only)
Cassie Tarakajian, "You Are My Sunshine" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #411, recorded 01/02/2023)
Frances Turbyfill (Campbell), Derek Piotr, "You Are My Sunshine" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #151, recorded 04/25/2022)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
My Only Woodbine (File: Hopk084A)
NOTES [431 words]: W. K. McNeil, editor, Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, Routledge, 2005, p. 96, says that "James Houston 'Jimmie' Davis [1899-2000] enjoyed several extremely successful careers, as a country and gospel singer, songwriter, music publisher, and politician. Born in poverty in rural Louisiana, Davis was the son of sharecroppers San and Sara Davis." He earned a B.A. in history in 1924, and three years later took his masters in education. He then taught history at Davis College., making his first radio appearances about the same time, singing popular music and Jimmie Rodgers covers. Described as a moderate Democrat, he held various offices, including Louisiana governor 1944-1948, 1960-1964. Over the years, he recorded many types of music, from "risqué blues songs" to Western Swing to blues and jazz, but his greatest success was with sentimental country songs; this, his most popular song, is typical. Starting in the 1950s, he devoted most of his energy to gospel music.
This is now "an official song of Louisiana" (McNeil, p. 97), whatever that means.
Some sources list Charles Miller as a co-author of this, but even if he was, no one seems to pay his contribution the slightest attention.
There have been many other attributions over the years. A thread on Mudcat suggests that it was written by Paul Rice and that Davis and Mitchell bought it from him for $35, which Rice took because his wife had medical bills to pay. But no source is cited for this information, although it's certainly a familiar enough story. There are claims that Rice too had it, or at least the idea, from someone else. Another thread claims it was by Oliver Hood. The Wikipedia article on the song has sources for these claims, but all are secondary. There seem to be no primary sources at all beyond the Davis copyright claim. - RBW
Hurt sings only the first verse and the chorus.
Jimmie Davis was not to be outdone as a singing and yodeling governor by W. Lee O'Daniel: "Contrary to expectations, Louisiana singing governor, Jimmie Davis, author of You Are My Sunshine, did not open the Louisiana State Legislature with a song. He was dignified and decorous" (Drew Pearson, "Washington Merry-Go-Round" in Buffalo Courier Express (Buffalo, October 11, 1944), p. 12). - BS
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 458, estimates that this was the tenth most popular song in America in July 1941, and also reached #7 in December 1962. It was recorded by Bing Crosby, Gene Autry, and Tex RItter. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcYAMSS

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