Bring Me Sunshine

"Bring Me Sunshine"
"Bring Me Sunshine" BBC CD cover
Music by	Arthur Kent
Lyrics by	Sylvia Dee
Published	Bourne Music, 1966
Language	English
Recorded by	Brenda Lee, Jack Greene, Liz Damon's Orient Express, Willie Nelson, Chet Atkins, Mickey Gilley and others
Performed by	Morecambe & Wise

"Bring Me Sunshine" is a song written in 1966 by the composer Arthur Kent, with lyrics by Sylvia Dee, and first performed by American artists in the late 1960s. In Britain, the song is synonymous with the legendary comedy duo Morecambe & Wise, after it was adopted as their signature tune in their second series for the BBC in 1969.

Musical influences

Professor of Critical Musicology at Leeds University, Prof Derek B Scott, argues that the song is influenced by the Viennese popular style. He writes:

"The melody implies a minor key, with harmonies on the tonic and subdominant. This would, of course, be bizarre and inappropriate for the words "Bring me sunshine in Your Smile / Bring me laughter all the while". But we find that the tonality is actually the relative major of the key implied by the tone, and the harmonies consist of the tonic (with a free-floating sixth) and dominant ninth. Suddenly the words and music make perfect sense, the tension of the dissonances conveying the sense of an appeal for sunshine, rather than the actual presence of sunshine."

Morecambe & Wise version

Morecambe & Wise in their classic "skip dance" pose, performed to "Bring Me Sunshine"

Skip-dance

Although the second verse was often performed by an orchestra conducted by Peter Knight over the duo's closing credits, they only ever sang the first verse, the second one being purely instrumental, with Eric and Ernie performing a "skip dance" to exit the stage. Eric's son Gary recalls that the inspiration for the skip-dance came from a Groucho Marx film sequence.

Morecambe & Wise tributes

When Eric Morecambe died in 1984 so closely associated were the pair with the song that it was the title of the Bring Me Sunshine tribute show at the London Palladium held in his memory. Ten years later, the BBC ran another 3-part tribute, also titled Bring Me Sunshine.

Lyrics to the song were also read at Morecambe's funeral by Ernie Wise. Wise went on to declare it his favourite song during his appearance on the BBC radio programme, Desert Island Discs in Oct 1990. On the same program three months later, the song was also a choice of jazz singer Adelaide Hall. It has also been used for the title of several books about the pair.

It is interesting to note that when Morecambe & Wise defected from the BBC to Thames Television in 1978, directly after their record-breaking Christmas Special the previous year, the signature tune was dropped. It was however used in later installments of these shows.

BBC promotional clip

In 2011, the BBC used the song in a promotional clip for the 75th anniversary of its main channel, beginning with the familiar opening shot of Morecambe & Wise before leading into a montage of other famous moments from the channel's history, most of which were edited so as to lip-sync with the song.

Willie Nelson, and, Brenda Lee versions

The 30 Nov 1968 edition of Billboard magazine predicted that Willie Nelson's version of Bring Me Sunshine (produced by Chet Atkins and Felton Jarvis), would reach the Top 20 in the Country Single Charts, eventually reaching #13 in 1969. It was included in 1974 on the budget compilation album, Spotlight on Willie Nelson. A different mix appears on Nelson's 2009 album Naked Willie; this version is featured in the closing credits of the 2010 film The Crazies. The song was also covered by American singer Brenda Lee on her 1969 album, Johnny One Time (Decca).

Other recordings

The song has also been recorded by:

• 1969 Brenda Lee, on her album, Johnny One Time.
• 1969 Jack Greene, on his album, Statue of a Fool.
• 1970 Chet Atkins, on his album, Yestergroovin'. (YouTube video)
• 1971 Liz Damon's Orient Express, on their eponymous album.
• 1974 Willie Nelson, on his album, Spotlight on Willie Nelson. (YouTube video
• 1978 Mickey Gilley, on his album, Mickey at Gilleys.
• 1999 Jon Nickell, on his album, Don't Say I Didn't Tell You!
• 1999 Norfolk Singers, on their album, 24 English Pub Songs.
• 1999 Cliff Adams Singers, on their album, Sing Something Simple Collection: Sentimental Journey.
• 2003 Mrs Mills (Glady Mills), on her album, The Very Best of Mrs. Mills.
• 2006 Richard Shelton, on his album, Top Cat.
• 2010 Foster & Allen, on their album of the same name, which peaked at number 14 in March 2011 in the New Zealand charts.
• 2011 Oleg Frish with Patrick Williams & His Big Band, on the album, Bring Me Sunshine..

See also

• Morecambe & Wise
• The Morecambe & Wise Show (1968)

External links

• "Bring Me Sunshine" by The Jive Aces (video shown at the Port Townsend Film Festival)
• "Bring Me Sunshine" performed by Morecambe and Wise on their TV show, via YouTube
• "Bring Me Sunshine" performed by Wille Nelson, via YouTube
• "Bring Me Sunshine" performed by Brenda Lee, via YouTube