He sold ‘Sunshine’ to Davis and Mitchell for $35. Paul’s wife was in the hospital and he needed cash to pay her bills. Continued ControversyĪn old newspaper article in The Shreveport Times stated, “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). While the Rice Brothers are sometimes credited with writing the song, family members of Hood, a collaborator with Paul Rice, say that Hood wrote the song in the early 1930s and he first performed it as early as 1933. (Indeed, on an unrelated note, some claim Hank Williams purchased some of his more famous songs from other writers.) This was a relatively common practice amongst musicians before the music business took shape in the mid-20th century. Pappas says that Davis purchased the song from Paul Rice, along with all the rights, before it was copyrighted and published. In a November 1990 article by Theodore Pappas, in Chronicles Magazine, Oliver Hood of LaGrange, Georgia was credited as the true writer of the song. When the copyright was renewed 17 years later on February 2, 1967, both of their names appeared on the track again. of New York.ĭavis and Mitchell later recorded it on February 5, 1940, at Decca Studios in the Big Apple. It was copyrighted by Davis and Mitchell and published by Southern Music Publishing Co., Inc. “You Are My Sunshine” was later published on January 30, 1940, by Jimmie Davis (a future two-time governor of Louisiana) and Charles Mitchell. The writer on their record was listed as Paul Rice. The Rice Brothers’ Gang was from Georgia but later found themselves in Shreveport, Louisiana. The same year, The Rice Brothers’ Gang recorded the track for Decca on September 13, 1939, also releasing a version in October of ‘39. 4 on October 26, 1940.Ĭrucially, no songwriter was listed at the time. The group recorded it in their hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, and saw the song peak at No. They recorded the tune on August 22, 1939, and later released it on October 6 of that year for Bluebird Records. 1939Īccording to records, the song was first tracked by The Pine Ridge Boys, a group consisting of Marvin Taylor and Doug Spivey.
But who wrote “You Are My Sunshine” and where did it come from? Let’s dive into the history of the song.
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