You Are the Sunshine of My Life
| "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Stevie Wonder | ||||
| from the album Talking Book | ||||
| B-side | "Tuesday Heartbreak" | |||
| Released | March 1973 | |||
| Format | 7" 45 RPM | |||
| Recorded | 1972 | |||
| Genre | Soul, pop | |||
| Length | 2:58 | |||
| Label | Tamla | |||
| Writer(s) | Stevie Wonder | |||
| Producer(s) | Stevie Wonder | |||
| Stevie Wonder singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"You Are the Sunshine of My Life" is a 1973 single released by Stevie Wonder. The song became Wonder's third #1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and his first #1 on the Easy Listening chart.[1] It won Wonder a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, and was nominated for both Record of the Year and Song of the Year.[2] This song was the second single released from the 1972 album entitled Talking Book, which stayed at number one on the R&B charts for three weeks.[2] The song opened 194 Radio City on 21 October 1974.
Rolling Stone ranked the song #281 on their list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
The first two lines of the song are sung, not by Wonder, but by Jim Gilstrap and with Lani Groves singing the next two lines.[3] The single version of the song differs from the album version with the addition of horns to the mix.
Language versions
The song has been translated to many languages, notably in French as "Le soleil de ma vie" (literally "the sun of my life") sung by Sacha Distel and Brigitte Bardot.
In popular culture
The song was used in the ABC sitcom Taxi in the season 5 episode "Jim's Inheritance". A tape was left by Jim Ignatowski's late father to remind him that he was his favorite of his three children.
The song was sung in the CBS sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond twice during the series run, both times by Ray. The first was in the season 5 finale and the other was in the series finale.[4]
See also
- List of Hot 100 number-one singles of 1973 (U.S.)
- List of number-one adult contemporary singles of 1973 (U.S.)
References
- ↑ Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001. Record Research. p. 262.
- 1 2 Hogan, Ed. "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" (song review), AllMusic.com.
- ↑ Bronson, Fred (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits: Updated and Expanded 5th Edition. Random House Digital, Inc. p. 333.
- ↑ "Everybody Loves Raymond Season 9 Episode 17: Finale". TV.com. 2014-07-06. Retrieved 2015-07-23.
External links
| Preceded by "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" by Dawn featuring Tony Orlando |
Billboard Hot 100 number-one single May 19, 1973 (one week) |
Succeeded by "Frankenstein" by The Edgar Winter Group |
