Song Swarm – Sunny
Bobby Hebb, the writer of “Sunny”, had a quite remarkable early life, which after 72 years came to an end in 2010. Born to blind parents, both musicians, Nashville-born Robert Von Hebb progressed from being a child musician to becoming one of the earlier black musicians to play at the Grand Ole Opry, as part of Ray Acuff’s band. In the early 1960s Hebb even had a minor hit with a country standard recorded by Acuff, “Night Train To Memphis”. When “Sunny” became a hit in 1966, Hebb was touring with The Beatles — he was among the support acts at their last ever concert, in San Francisco’s Candlestick Park.
The genesis for “Sunny” was in a dual tragedy: the assassination of John F Kennedy and the following day the fatal stabbing in a mugging of Hebb’s older brother Harold, with whom he had performed in childhood. The song was a conscious statement of meeting the trauma of these events with a defiantly positive disposition. In 2007, he told the Associated Press about writing “Sunny”: “I was intoxicated. I came home and started playing the guitar. I looked up and saw what looked like a purple sky. I started writing because I’d never seen that before.”
Still, it would be almost three years before Hebb would release the song himself — and even then he wasn’t the first. In a quite curious twist, it was first recorded in Japanese by the singer Mieko Hirota, who had made her debut in her home country in 1962 with a cover of Connie Francis’ “Vacation”. Within three years, the by now 18-year-old singer became the first Japanese artist to appear at the Newport Jazz Festival (the line-up of which included Frank Sinatra), having just recently discovered her talent for the genre thanks to a chance meeting with American jazz promoter George Wein. The same year, in October 1965, she was the first of many to release “Sunny”, scoring a hit with it in Japan with her rather lovely jazzy version.
Eventually Hebb got around to releasing it, apparently having recorded it as an after-thought at the end of a session. Hebb’s recording rightly became the definitive and most successful version. Apparently it is the 18th most performed song in the BMI catalogue.
There’d be no Song Swarm of 64 songs if “Sunny” was not so adaptable. Of those, 45 were recorded within the first two years of its release. The genres cover pop (from Georgie Fame over Cher to Manfred Mann), soul (Marvin Gaye, Billy Preston — especially good — Stevie Wonder, Wilson Picket etc), country (Eddy Arnold, Floyd Cramer), jazz (Les McCann, Wes Montgomery, Young-Holt Trio), easy listening (Frank Sinatra, Shirley Bassey, Andy Williams), Latin (Willie Bobo, Trini Lopez, Johnny Colon) — and a few actors got into it as well: Robert Mitchum plays it straight, Leonard Nimoy tries to play it straight. Bill Cosby played it bizarre, but his version doesn’t feature here anymore.
1966: Mieko Hirota, Bobby Hebb, Les McCann (Part 1), Georgie Fame, Young-Holt Trio, Cher, Chris Montez, Willie Bobo, Wes Montgomery (alternate take), Del Shannon, The Walker Brothers, Marvin Gaye, Chuck Jackson, Billy Preston, 1967: Andy Williams, Booker T. & The MG’s, Dusty Springfield, The Ventures, Herbie Mann & Tamiko Jones, Johnny Rivers, Blossom Dearie, Robert Mitchum, Wilson Pickett, Frank Sinatra & Duke Ellington, 1968: The Four Tops, Manfred Mann, Eddy Arnold, Floyd Cramer, Mary Wells, Leonard Nimoy, Stevie Wonder, Frankie Valli, José Feliciano, Maxine Brown, Shirley Bassey, Nancy Wilson, Brother Jack & David Newman, George Benson, Trini Lopez, Johnny Colon and his Orchestra, Pucho and the Latin Soul Brothers, 1969: James Brown & Marva Whitney, Electric Flag, Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Bra, 1970: Ella Fitzgerald, Tom Jones & Ella Fitzgerald, Melba Moore 1972: Pat Martino 1975: Yambú 1976: Bobby Hebb ’76, Boney M 1978: Hampton Hawes 1986: Stanley Jordan 1992: Joe McBride 1995: Nick Cave 1996: The Head Shop 2000: Jamiroquai, John Schroeder Orchestra 2003: Paul Carrack 2005: Noon, Elisabeth Kontomanou 2012: PillowTalk 2013: Hippie Sabotage
Other Song Swarms:
Papa Was A Rolling Stone
Hound Dog
Blue Moon
These Boots Are Made For Walking
Sunday Morning Coming Down
Like A Rolling Stone
Gonna Get Along Without You Now
Over The Rainbow
By The Time I Get To Phoenix
Georgia On My Mind
Light My Fire
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
Great pick for a swarm, Dude. I’m sure it took a great deal of work to compile this collection. No way these are all of the covers. There must be many more, including The Anita Kerr Singers from 1972. Although I never owned the record, even today when someone asks me what my favorite song is I never seem to hesitate. It is Sunny by Bobby Hebb. My kids might say I have a million favorite songs but this is one of the tops. Each time I hear it I drift into a reverie. 1966, my first apartment, my first passionate love affair, my 1953 Ford Coupe with a radio that didn’t work unless I stepped on the clutch. I don’t care who performs this song or what the style is, I can’t get enough.
Thanks for the memories.
German rapper Cro has recorded a nice version, named Easy, in which he uses the music and refrain of Sunny: https://soundcloud.com/friendlysupporter/01-easy?in=friendlysupporter/sets/cro-easy-mixtape (first song is Easy)