Sunshine On My
Shoulders
Written By Dick Kniss &
John Denver
Produced
by Milt Okun
Album:
Poems, Prayers & Promises
John Denver's first live album, An Evening with John Denver (1975)
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lyrics
Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happySunshine in my eyes can make me cry
Sunshine on the water looks so lovely
Sunshine almost always makes me high
If I had a day that I could give you
I'd give to you the day just like today
If I had a song that I could sing for you
I'd sing a song to make you feel this way
Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy
Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry
Sunshine on the water looks so lovely
Sunshine almost always makes me high
If I had a tale that I could tell you
I'd tell a tale sure to make you smile
If I had a wish that I could wish for you
I'd make a wish for sunshine for all the while
Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy
Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry
Sunshine on the water looks so lovely
Sunshine almost always makes me high
Sunshine almost all the time makes me high
Sunshine almost always
According to John
Denver about the song:
I wrote the song in Minnesota at the time I call
‘late winter, early spring.’ It was a dreary day, gray and slushy. The snow was
melting and it was too cold to go outside and have fun, but God, you’re ready
for spring. You want to get outdoors again and you’re waiting for that sun to
shine, and you remember how sometimes the sun itself can make you feel good.
And in that very melancholy frame of mind, I wrote ‘Sunshine On My Shoulders’.
John Denver
wrote this song on an early spring day in Minnesota when the rain was gently
falling. He found himself looking forward to spending more time outdoors and
enjoying the sunshine. He said of the song, "On one level it was about the
virtues of love. On another, more deeply felt level, it reached for something
the whole world could embrace."
This
song first appeared on John Denver's 1971 album Poems, Prayers &
Promises. Denver was a struggling singer/songwriter at the time who was
enjoying his first solo hit "Take Me Home Country Roads," which was released a few months before the album and was
climbing the charts. Over the next few years, Denver found an audience with his
heartwarming, spiritual songs that dealt with finding pleasure in the simple
things. "Sunshine" was revived in 1973 when it was used as the B-side
of Denver's single "I'd Rather Be a Cowboy," which reached #62 in the
US. Later that year, "Sunshine On My Shoulders" was issued as an
A-side single, and for a week in February 1974, it was the #1 song in America.
Seems the United States was in a kinder, happier mood at the time, as the next
#1 was "Hooked On A Feeling" by Blue Swede.
This
song got a big boost when it was used in a November 1973 made-for-TV movie
called Sunshine, a weeper about a woman dying of cancer who recorded
messages for her family in her final days. The concept was used in a spin-off
series the next year, also called Sunshine.Denver said of the original TV movie: "It was the true story of Lyn Helton, an incredibly courageous lady who chose to live her short life to the fullest even though she knew she would die of a rare bone cancer in a matter of months. It seems that in the last year of her life she found some happiness in my music. I was most honored to have my songs used as part of that television show."
This
was used in the 1994 episode of The Simpsons called "Bart of
Darkness." It also appeared in a 2005 episode of the showCold Case.
Denver
wrote this song with his lead guitarist Mike Taylor and bass player Richard
Kniss. Taylor also co-wrote "Rocky Mountain High"
with Denver.
John Denver's first live album, An Evening with John
Denver (1975), was a lavish two-LP set accompanying a network TV special,
released at his commercial peak. His second live album, The Wildlife Concert,
is a lavish two-CD set accompanying a cable TV special and home video, released
at his commercial trough. Denver performs most of his Top Ten hits from the
'70s (but not "Thank God I'm a Country Boy," the big hit off the last
live album), getting the bulk of them out of the way early on the first disc.
He adds some well-chosen covers by folk peers such as David Mallett (the
antiwar "You Say the Battle Is Over") and Tom Paxton ("Bet on
the Blues"), selects some of his better, if less familiar, songs of the
last decade ("The Harder They Fall," "Falling Out of
Love"), and introduces new material touching on his favorite romantic
("Is It Love?") and political/philosophical ("Amazon")
themes. With such a balanced set list, he manages to revitalize the best of his
catalog, reassert his folk roots, and, to an extent, redefine himself
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