15. You Are My Sunshine

"You Are My Sunshine" is a song popularized by Jimmie Davis and Charles Mitchell[1] in 1939. It has been declared one of the state songs of Louisiana because of its association with Davis, a country music singer and governor of the state in the years 1944–1948 and 1960–1964.

The song has been recorded numerous times—so often, in fact, that it is "one of the most commercially programmed numbers in American popular music".[2] The song, originally country music, has "virtually lost" its original country music identity, and "represent[s] both the national flowering of country music and its eventual absorption into the mainstream of American popular culture."[2] In 1941, it was recorded by Gene Autry, Bing Crosby,[3] Mississippi John Hurt, Wayne King and Lawrence Welk.[2] The versions by Autry, Crosby, and King reached the US charts of the day.[4]

In subsequent years, it was recorded by Doris Day (1951), Nat King Cole (1955), The Marcels (1961), Ray Charles (1962), Ike & Tina Turner, The Rivingtons (1962), Andy Williams (1963), Burl Ives (1968), Frank Turner, The Beach Boys, Aretha Franklin, Anne Murray (1979), Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Norman Blake, Brian Wilson, Mouse and the Traps, Gene Vincent, Jamey Johnson, Low, Mose Allison, Bryan Ferry, Carly Simon, Papa Winnie (1989), Madeline Eastman, Yusuf Islam, Copeland, Johnny and the Hurricanes, and Barbra Lica (2012), amongst many others.[2]