You Are My Sunshine

Jimmie Davis ~ You Are My Sunshine - YouTube:



'via Blog this'

I'm sure you know the children's song I'm talking about, You Are My Sunshine. I was singing Seth to sleep last night and I started thinking about the song and what it said and I suddenly had to know the origin of this song. So I did what I do best, I Googled it.

The song was wrote by Jimmie Davis and Charles Mitchell. Although there's an article from 1990 that says the original song was written by Oliver Hood. It was first recorded in 1939. Did you know it was declared one of the state songs of Louisiana?!

Have you ever listened to the whole song? Link above if you haven't. I never knew it was a whole song with, you know, verses. I just thought it was some children's song that consisted of a chorus. If you listen to the words it's actually a sad song. Why on earth did we make such a sad song a children's song?

The Lyrics:
Verse 1
The other night, dear,
As I lay sleeping
I dreamed I held you in my arms
But when I woke, dear,
I was mistaken
And I hung my head and cried

Chorus
You are my sunshine
My only sunshine
You make me happy
When skies are gray
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away.

Verse 2
I'll always love you
And make you happy
If you will only say the same
But if you leave me
To love another
You'll regret it all some day

Chorus

Verse 3
You told me once, dear
You really loved me
That no one else could come between
But now you've left me
And love another,
You have shattered all my dreams

Chorus


Anyone else feel like crying after reading those lyrics?
We took something painful and turned it into a kid's song. Sure let me use your pain to lull my child to sleep. Don't get me wrong there's something beautiful about the song and I won't stop singing it just because I finally know what it's about, but it's still just so sad. Hopefully I haven't ruined the song for anyone.