abstract
| - %22You Are My Sunshine%22 is a popular song recorded by Jimmie Davis and Charles Mitchell. and first recorded in 1939. It has been declared one of the state songs of Louisiana because of its association with former state governor and country music singer Davis.The song has been covered numerous times — so often, in fact, that it is %22one of the most commercially programmed numbers in American popular music.%22 The song, originally country music, has %22virtually lost%22 its original country music identity, and %22represent[s] both the national flowering of country music and its eventual absorption into the mainstream of American popular culture.” In 1941, it was covered by Gene Autry, Bing Crosby, Mississippi John Hurt and Lawrence Welk. In subsequent years, it was covered by Nat King Cole (1955), Ray Charles, Ike and Tina Turner, The Rivingtons (1962), Frank Turner, Aretha Franklin, Johnny Cash, Brian Wilson, Mouse and the Traps, Jamey Johnson, Low and Andy Williams, amongst many others.The 1940 version by Davis has been added to the National Recording Registry in the Library of Congress on March 21, 2013 for long-term preservation.Virginia Shehee, a long-time Davis family friend and member of the Louisiana State Senate from 1976 to 1980, introduced legislation to make %22You Are My Sunshine%22 the official state song.
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