You Are My Sunshine Lyris

Jimmie Davis and Charles Mitchell made “You Are My Sunshine” famous in 1939. Given that Davis, a country music artist who served as Louisiana’s governor from 1944 to 1948 and again from 1960 to 1964, is associated with the song, it has been designated as one of the state songs of Louisiana. The song has been covered several times; in fact, it has been recorded so many times that it is considered to be “one of the most commercially programmed numbers in American popular music.” The song’s original country music style has “virtually lost” its style, and it “represent[s] both the national flowering of country music and its eventual blending into the mainstream of American popular culture.”

Gene Autry, Bing Crosby, Mississippi John Hurt, Wayne King, and Lawrence Welk all performed it in 1941. The renditions by Autry, Crosby, and King made it to the era’s US charts. 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, Yusuf Islam, Copeland, Johnny and the Hunna later covered it. It was also covered by Nat King Cole (1955), The Marcels (1961), Ray Charles (1962), Ike & Tina Turner, The Rivington

On March 21, 2013, the Davis version from 1940 was entered into the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress for long-term preservation. Virginia Shehee, a longtime friend of the Davis family and a senator for Louisiana from 1976 to 1980, proposed legislation to declare “You Are My Sunshine” the official anthem.

Lyrics

Verse 1

The other night dear, As i lay sleeping

I dreamed i held you in my arms

But when i woke, dear, i was mistaken

So i bowed my head and i cryed

Verse 2

You are my sunshine

My only sunshine

You make me happy

When skies are gray

You’ll never know, dear

How much I love you

Please don’t take

My sunshine away

Verse 3

I’ll always love you and make you happy,

If you only say the same but

If you leave me to love another

You’ll regret it allsome day

Verse 4

You are my sunshine

My only sunshine

You make me happy

When skies are gray

You’ll never know, dear

How much I love you

Please don’t take

My sunshine away

Verse 4

You told me once, dear, you really loveed me

And no one els could come between

But now you’ve left me to love another

You have shattered all of my dreams

Verse 5

You are my sunshine

My only sunshine

You make me happy

When skies are gray

You’ll never know, dear

How much I love you

Please don’t take

My sunshine away

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