who wrote the original you are my sunshine
Paul Rice Mitchell
title: You Are My Sunshine text: prior to Jimmie Davis' version. The first was recorded for Bluebird Records (RCA-Victor's budget label) on August 22, 1939, by The Pine Ridge Boys (Marvin Taylor and Doug Spivey), who were from Atlanta. The second was recorded for Decca Records on September 13, 1939, by The Rice Brothers Gang. This group was originally from north Georgia but relocated to Shreveport, where they were performing on the radio station KWKH. The version by Jimmie Davis was recorded for Decca Records on February 5, 1940. While Davis and Mitchell are the credited songwriters of "You Are My Sunshine", Davis was never known title: You Are My Sunshine text: to actually claim authorship, as he bought the song and rights from Paul Rice and put his own name on it, a practice not uncommon in the pre-World War II music business. Some early versions of the song credit the Rice Brothers. Descendants and associates of Oliver Hood, a LaGrange, Georgia musician who collaborated with Rice, claim Hood wrote the song in the early 1930s and first performed it in 1933 at a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention at LaGrange, Georgia in 1933. According to some accounts, clarinetist Pud Brown was also involved with the Rice Brothers for the song's title: You Are My Sunshine text: Wilson, Mouse and the Traps, Gene Vincent, Jamey Johnson, Low, Mose Allison, Bryan Ferry, Carly Simon, Yusuf Islam, Andy Williams, Copeland, Johnny and the Hurricanes, and Barbra Lica (2012), amongst many others. The 1940 version by Davis has been added to the National Recording Registry in the Library of Congress on March 21, 2013, for long-term preservation. Virginia Shehee, a long-time Davis family friend and member of the Louisiana State Senate from 1976 to 1980, introduced legislation to make "You Are My Sunshine" the official state song. Two versions of "You Are My Sunshine" were recorded and released in 1939 title: You Are My Sunshine text: You Are My Sunshine "You Are My Sunshine" is a popular song written by Jimmie Davis and Charles Mitchell and first recorded in 1939. It has been declared one of the state songs of Louisiana because of its association with Davis, a country music singer and governor of the state in the years 1944–1948 and 1960–1964. The song has been covered numerous times — so often, in fact, that it is "one of the most commercially programmed numbers in American popular music." The song, originally country music, has "virtually lost" its original country music identity, and "represent[s] both the national title: Duane Eddy text: and Roll Lullaby". In 1975, a collaboration with hit songwriter Tony Macaulay and former founding member of The Seekers, Keith Potger, led to another UK top ten record, "Play Me Like You Play Your Guitar". The single, "You Are My Sunshine", featuring Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, hit the country charts in 1977. In 1986, Eddy recorded with Art of Noise, remaking his 1960 version of Henry Mancini's "Peter Gunn". The song was a Top Ten hit around the world, ranking number 1 on "Rolling Stone"'s dance chart for six weeks that summer. "Peter Gunn" won the Grammy for Best