"You Are My Sunshine" is my very favorite song in the whole wide world. My mom would sing it to me when I was a little kid, and it's one of the first songs to which I learned the words. I had a kids version on Peter Pan Records - a little plastic yellow record, smaller than a 45 but played at 78rpm - that eventually broke or was tossed away. It was a pleasant surprise several years ago when, on an episode of "Star Trek: Voyager", the Doctor and Seven of Nine sang it (if anyone has a copy of their version, I sure would like a copy of it!). It was revived in the 2000 movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" (although the movie takes place during the Depression in the 1930s, and the song wasn't actually recorded until about 1940). Most recently, a really cool version by Stine J was played at the end of an episode of "Queer as Folk" and on the soundtrack of "Mr. and Mrs. Smith".So, because I love this song so much, I decided to create a compilation of just this song sung by as many different artists as I could find. This compilation includes versions by the original, Jimmie Davis (who was later Governor of Louisiana), country versions, jazz versions, children's versions, live versions, and even a punk version by Screaching Weasel. Who knew? Well, I came up with 46 different versions, so I split it up evenly into two zip files to be able to burn them to a couple of CDs. You may be wondering (or not) about the picture I chose. I'll tell you anyway - Stinkerbelle was my adorable little tabby that died in June of liver cancer (I have two other geriatric cats). I always sang "You Are My Sunshine" to her, and I sang it to her as she died. So, I am dedicating this compilation to her, because she was, and forever will be, "my sunshine".
Artists who perform on You Are My Sunshine 1:
1. Albert Ammons & His Rhythm Kings
2. Ames Brothers
3. Bert Kaempfert
4. Bing Crosby
5. Bob Dylan (with Johnny Cash)
6. Bryan White
7. Burl Ives
8. Disneyland Children's Sing-Along Chorus & Larry Groce
9. Firehouse Five Plus Two
10. Gene Harris & Scott Hamilton Quintet
11. Jimmie Davis (the original)
12. Johnny & The Hurricanes
13. Kevin Devine
14. Mills Brothers
15. Mississippi John Hurt
16. Nat King Cole
17. Neil Diamond
18. Norman Blake (from "O Brother, Where Art Thou?")
19. Pete Seeger
20. Ray Charles
21. Rick Nelson
22. Slim Whitman
23. Stine J (from "Mr. and Mrs. Smith")
Artists who perform on You Are My Sunshine 2:
1. Anne Murray
2. Boxcar Willie
3. Carl McVoy
4. Collins Kids (joined by Rosemary Clooney and others)
5. Countdown Kids
6. Delbert McClinton
7. Elizabeth Mitchell
8. Gene Autry
9. Heidi Hauge
10. James Morrison
11. Kitty Kallen
12. Les Elgart
13. Mac Wiseman
14. Mitch Miller
15. Ruby Murray
16. Sara Gazarek
17. Sara Hickman
18. Screaching Weasel
19. Tom Petty
20. Tommy Hunter
21. Trini Lopez
22. Wilf Carter
23. Willie Nelson (with Leon Russell)
12 comments:
Hope you like it - and thanks for visiting Stax o' Wax!
I know I'm a little late commenting on this, but I just discovered your blog (great, BTW).
Anyway, in response to your request for the ST: Voyager "You Are My Sunshine" -- I don't have the original, but check out an old page of Voyager-themed dance mixes by DJ Netgyrl at http://www.screamingxenas.com/voyager/ which includes one called "U R My Sunshine" based around samples of the Doctor and Seven's singalong.
Enjoy!
Beach Boy Brian Wilson's Smile album contains the song sung in past tense. It is certainly a strange version of the song.
Thank you for the tribute to your cat (it made me cry); they are part of people's lives and actually always will be - your compiling these tracks contributes to that!
I'm sorry to read of your loss. Stinkerbelle is a cutie. We, too, sing "You Are My Sunshine" to our feline boys. What a funny coincidence! At the line "you'll never KNOW dear how much I love you," we sing "i hope you SEE dear how much we love you." This is because NO is a bad word. Despite being so tiny, our furry boys are so important in our lives. Stinkerbelle was lucky to have a friend like you. Thanks so much for compiling a song our family loves. [We also sing Astrud Gilberto songs to the boys, and doing it lulls them to sleep.]
So sorry to hear about your loss... I'm a cat person too.
Love the idea of this compilation -- I really like hearing different versions of a song. Very cool!
Thank you all for your kind comments regarding my loss of my baby, Stinkerbelle. I'm glad that you liked this tribute I made to her.
Thanks for such a great blog website.
"You are my sunshine2" is unavalable; can you make it available? Thanks.
Hi, dickjjb!
Thanks for stopping by!
Hmmm... I don't know why that happens. Sometimes I get that message too, but when I try later it works. Give it another day and if it's still saying it's not available, I'll re-upload it.
Thanks!
I'm so sorry about your cat.
Thanks for this, we're making a copy for my mother in law for Mother's Day, since it's her favorite song...
Hey.....too bad about Stinkerbell..she must have been a good cat. BTW That cat and picture of her looks like fellow blogger Littlgrey's cat icon,interestingly..
Hi, Pokey,
It's been 4 years since I lost my Stinkerbelle and I still miss her very much. I took this picture of her just a couple of weeks before she died. She was a tabby. I'm familiar with Litlgrey, but I think she's a muted tortoiseshell (or a similar tabby) - a really cute kitty.
Thanks for visiting!
Esther
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