Sunny Came Home

"Sunny Came Home"
Single by Shawn Colvin
from the album A Few Small Repairs
Released	June 24, 1997 (1997-06-24)
Format	CD
Recorded	1996
Genre	Rock, contemporary folk
Length	4:24 (album version) 3:46 (radio edit)
Label	Columbia
Writer(s)	Shawn Colvin, John Leventhal
Producer	John Leventhal
Shawn Colvin singles chronology
"Get Out of This House" (1996) "Sunny Came Home" (1997) "You and the Mona Lisa" (1997)
A Few Small Repairs track listing "Sunny Came Home" (1) "Get Out of This House" (2) Polaroids: A Greatest Hits Collection track listing "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)" (8) "Sunny Came Home" (9) "You and the Mona Lisa" (10)

"Sunny Came Home" is a folk-rock song by American musician Shawn Colvin. It is the theme song to her 1996 concept album A Few Small Repairs, and quickly became a hit when it was released as a CD single on June 24, 1997.

About the single

The song tells the story of a woman named Sunny who burns down her house to escape her past. It is one of several "story songs" on A Few Small Repairs, a method of songwriting Colvin began experimenting with while writing for the album. The title of the song comes from the opening lyrics.

The song's calming and upbeat music, fronted by a distinctive mandolin strum, contrasts sharply with the destructive lyrics, particularly the haunting bridge: "Get the kids and bring a sweater; dry is good and wind is better. Count the years; you always knew it / Strike a match; go on and do it". The title of the album, A Few Small Repairs, also appears in the third line of the second verse of the song, "It's time for a few small repairs she said."

At the end of the song, the lighting of a match can briefly be heard, followed by a quick breath to presumably put the flame out. The version that played on most radio stations was edited, as was the video version on mtv, removing approximately 30 seconds of instrumental music, mostly at the end of the song.^{[citation needed]}

Track listing

1. "Sunny Came Home" (Colvin, John Leventhal) (4:24)
2. "What I Get Paid For" (Colvin, Neil Finn) (3:23)

Chart performance

"Sunny Came Home" is Colvin's biggest hit. At the 1998 Grammy Awards, it was named Song of the Year and Record of the Year. The Grammy Awards presentation was the occasion for an interruption by rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard stating that his group, Wu-Tang Clan, is for the children, while Colvin was about to receive her award. [1] It peaked at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, and likely would have achieved a higher peak had it been released commercially sooner to correspond with the song's airplay maximum: it was #1 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart for four weeks and also #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart for four weeks. On the Hot 100 Single Sales chart, however, it peaked at #29. Colvin's record label did not plan to release the track as a retail single until it became an airplay favorite on CHR as well as AC and Adult Alternative radio stations and the label deduced that the song appealed to a younger audience who might be willing to buy the single.

Charts

Chart (1997)	Peak position
Canadian Singles Chart	3
Canadian Adult Contemporary Chart	1
UK Singles Chart	29
US Billboard Hot 100	7
US Adult Contemporary (Billboard)	1
US Pop Songs (Billboard)	4
US Adult Pop Songs (Billboard)	1

End of year charts

End of year chart (1997)	Position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	39

Chart succession

Preceded by "One Headlight" by The Wallflowers	Billboard Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks number-one single June 29 - August 9, 1997	Succeeded by "All for You" by Sister Hazel
Preceded by "Go the Distance" by Michael Bolton	Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks number-one single August 9 - August 30, 1997	Succeeded by "How Do I Live" by LeAnn Rimes

External links

• Shawn Colvin's official website.