You Are My Sunshine

Soul Music

You Are My Sunshine was written in or around 1939 and was adopted by the then governor of Louisiana, Jimmy Davies, who recorded and used it as his campaign theme song.

It has since been recorded by more than 400 artists, from Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash to Aretha Franklin and Bryan Ferry.

A mother and daughter tell their story of how the song helped the daughter's recovery after a catastrophic car crash, and how it has come to symbolise her struggle to rebuild her life after being in a coma for several months.

A resident of 'Tornado Alley' and author of The Mercy of the Sky tells the story of a devastating tornado that hit a town in Oklahoma in 2013, killing several schoolchildren, but how all the toddlers in a nearby daycare centre survived.

The staff comforted them by singing You Are My Sunshine as the storm destroyed the building. And pensioner Alice Kennedy fondly recalls a friend from the Irish Pensioners Choir in London, who used to sing the song and add his own cheeky lyrics.

Music historian: Paul Kingsbury

Producer: Maggie Ayre

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2017.