"Күн нұры" әнінің тарихы мен авторлық құқығы

1940 song copyrighted and published by Jimmie Davis and Charles Mitchell

"You Are My Sunshine" is an American standard of Old time and Country music and one of the official state songs of Louisiana. Its original writer is disputed. According to the performance rights organisation BMI, by the year 2000 the song had been recorded by over 350 artists and translated into 30 languages. Written and recorded as early as 1939, the song was first published and copyrighted in 1940 by Jimmie Davis and Charles Mitchell. Davis went on to be governor of Louisiana from 1944 to 1948 and again from 1960 to 1964, and used the song for his election campaign. Its best known covers include a recording by Johnny Cash in 1989. In 1999, "You Are My Sunshine" was honored with a Grammy Hall of Fame award, and the Recording Industry Association of America named it one of the Songs of the Century. In 2003, it was ranked as No. 73 on CMT's 100 Greatest Songs in Country Music.

The Pine Ridge Boys (Marv Taylor and Doug Spivey) recorded the song under the title "You Are My Sunshine" on August 22, 1939, and released it on October 6, 1939, for Bluebird Records. The song was recorded in Atlanta, Georgia, where the Pine Ridge Boys were from. No songwriter was listed. The Rice Brothers' Gang recorded the song next for Decca, on September 13, 1939, and released it the following month. This group was originally from Northern Georgia but relocated to Shreveport, Louisiana, where they performed on the radio station KWKH. The songwriter was listed as "Paul Rice". Paul and Hoke Rice sold the music to Jimmie Davis and Charles Mitchell shortly before 1940. The pair recorded the song on February 5, 1940, at Decca Studios in New York. Both received song writing credit and when the copyright was renewed on February 2, 1967, both of their names were on it. Southern Music Publishing Co., Inc. is still run by the Peer Family, though BMI now lists it under American Performing Rights Society, Inc., also known by its acronym, APRS, c/o Peermusic.

According to a November 1990 article by Theodore Pappas, in Chronicles Magazine, the true writer of the song was Oliver Hood of LaGrange, Georgia. The name of the article is "The Theft of an American Classic". He asserts that Davis never actually claimed authorship because he bought the song, along with all the rights, from Paul Rice before copyrighting and publishing—a practice not uncommon in the pre World War II music business. Paul Rice said, "I wrote 'You Are My Sunshine' in 1937. Where I got the idea for it, a girl over in South Carolina wrote me this long letter—it was long about seventeen pages. And she was talking about how I was her sunshine. I got the idea for the song and put a tune to it." According to Rice, "At least 20 people claimed to have written 'You Are My Sunshine'. I had a gal write me from California that she wrote it." he didn't claim authorship of the song, but instead related its history of popularity. Tony Russell states, "Though Mitchell's name appears on the copyright listing, he had already sold his half share to Davis."

In the 1997 The Simpsons episode "The Secret War of Lisa Simpson", Marge Simpson sends a recording of herself singing "You Are My Sunshine" to her daughter, who is homesick while enrolled in a military school. Sam Scott of Looper called it "one of the most powerful moments of melancholy beauty in a series that got them down to an art form." In 2000, the song was featured in the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? by the Coen brothers. In March 2020, British choirmaster Gareth Malone announced a new initiative titled the Great British Home Chorus, a new home choir for people internationally while everyone was stuck at home during the COVID 19 pandemic. For the finale, Malone orchestrated a choral version of "You Are My Sunshine", with over 11,000 singers taking part, accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra. The song was released as a charity single, with all the profits being donated to NHS Charities Together.

After Davis' second term as governor, his admirers were disappointed when Gov. John McKeithen vetoed a bill in 1968 that would have made "You Are My Sunshine" Louisiana's official song. The reason was that the song said not a word about Louisiana. Virginia Shehee, a long time Davis family friend and member of the Louisiana State Senate from 1976 to 1980, re introduced legislation to make "You Are My Sunshine" the official state song. In 1977, the Legislature decreed that "You Are My Sunshine" would share honors as the state song with "Give Me Louisiana" by Doralice Fontane. As the millennium drew near, Hall of Fame organizations started drawing up lists to honor the best music of the 20th century. On September 2, 1992, Country America magazine designated "You Are My Sunshine" 35th on its Top 100 Country Songs of All Time list. Next, it was among the pre 1950 records selected to join the Grammy Hall of Fame on February 24, 1999. On June 17, groundbreaking ceremonies were held for the new Country Music Hall of Fame in downtown Nashville, and the event included a guitar marching band, led by Chet Atkins, playing "Wildwood Flower" and "You Are My Sunshine". In 2000, the Songwriter's Hall of Fame chose Davis' version of "You Are My Sunshine" to receive its Towering Song Award. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) published their list of the top 365 "Songs Of The Century" on March 7, 2001, and "You Are My Sunshine" placed #14. The Country Music Foundation published "Heartaches By The Number" celebrating country's "500 greatest singles" on March 14, 2003, with "You Are My Sunshine" by Jimmie Davis on the list. On June 8, 2003, it ranked #73 on CMT's "100 Greatest Songs Of Country Music". On March 21, 2013, the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress added it for long term preservation. The song also became part of a cultural phenomenon in 2024, surging in popularity after it was part of an internet meme featuring LeBron James, in which Christina Perri's cover of the song is played over a heavily edited portrait photo of James himself behind an extremely glaring background; James is referred to as the sunshine. Although it is unclear who first paired the video edit, the meme is intended to mock obsessive and defensive fans of James. As a result, the meme became an influence for other similar memes, including "LeEvil James", a contrast to the original meme in another photoshopped image of James, but rather in a creepier and obscure aspect, and a slowed version of Perri's cover, along with fans spamming comments regarding James on social media platforms, calling him "honey" and "pookie bear", and posting the lyrics of the song.