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 | ||||
| Length | 2:58 | |||
| Label | Tamla | |||
| Songwriter(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 number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and his first number-one 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]
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; Lani Groves sings the next two.[3] The single version of the song differs from the album version with the addition of horns to the mix; this version also made into the Greatest Hits LP Original Musiquarium.
Personnel
Source: Talking Book, Tamla: T 319L, 27 October 1972 (album cover)
- Stevie Wonder – lead vocal, background vocal, Fender Rhodes, drums
- Jim Gilstrap – first lead vocal, background vocal
- Lani Groves – second lead vocal, background vocal
- Gloria Barley – background vocal
- Scott Edwards – electric bass
- Daniel Ben Zebulon – congas
Chart performance
Weekly charts
|
Year-end charts
|
In popular culture
In 2016, Jack White performed an alternative rock version the song with The Muppets for the series finale of The Muppets.[11]
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.
- ↑ RPM Adult Contemporary, June 16, 1973
- ↑ "flavour of new zealand - search listener". Flavourofnz.co.nz. Retrieved 2016-10-08.
- ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-01-21. Retrieved 2016-03-01.
- ↑ http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?brws_s=1&file_num=nlc008388.100214&type=2&interval=24&PHPSESSID=dtlhqtcdftn9t40n27r4hds2h0
- ↑ "Top 100 1973 - UK Music Charts". Uk-charts.top-source.info. Retrieved 2016-10-08.
- ↑ "Top 100 Hits of 1973/Top 100 Songs of 1973". Musicoutfitters.com. Retrieved 2016-10-08.
- ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-01-11. Retrieved 2016-06-25.
- ↑ Blistein, Jon (March 1, 2016), "See Jack White Sing 'You Are the Sunshine of My Life' With the Muppets". Retrieved March 29, 2017.
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 |
