Music | August 03, 2010 | 4 comments

Sunny One So True, I Love You... | Bobby Hebb, Singer/Songwriter of 1966 Hit "Sunny," Has Died

source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/38543709/ns/today-entertainment/

Image
EthicalVegan
Bobby Hebb, singer of '66 hit 'Sunny,' dies at 72

Musician was once so famous he toured with the Beatles

Sunny, yesterday my life was filled with rain.
Sunny, you smiled at me and really eased the pain.
The dark days are gone, and the bright days are here,
My sunny one shines so sincere.
Sunny one so true, I love you.

Sunny, thank you for the sunshine bouquet.
Sunny, thank you for the love you brought my way.
You gave to me your all and all.
Now I feel ten feet tall.
Sunny one so true, I love you.

Sunny, thank you for the truth you let me see.
Sunny, thank you for the facts from a to c.
My life was torn like a windblown sand,
And the rock was formed when you held my hand.
Sunny one so true, I love you.

Sunny

Sunny, thank you for the smile upon your face.
Sunny, thank you for the gleam that shows it's grace.
You're my spark of nature's fire,
You're my sweet complete desire.
Sunny one so true, I love you.

Sunny, yesterday my life was filled with rain.
Sunny, you smiled at me and really eased the pain.
The dark days are gone, and the bright days are here,
My sunny one shines so sincere.
Sunny one so true, I love you.

I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.

__________


updated 8/3/2010 4:11:17 PM ET



NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Bobby Hebb, whose 1966 pop music classic "Sunny" described a sincere smile from a woman that lifted the singer's burdens, died Tuesday. He was 72.

Family members and a funeral home spokeswoman said Hebb died at Centennial Medical Center. Friends said he had lung cancer.

"Sunny" also was recorded by many other singers, including Marvin Gaye, Wilson Pickett and Jose Feliciano.

The song's key lines:

"Sunny, yesterday my life was filled with rain.

"Sunny, you smiled at me and really eased the pain.

"The dark days are gone and the bright days are here.

"My sunny one shines so sincere.

"Sunny one so true, I love you."

Hebb had said in several interviews that he wrote "Sunny" in response to the slaying of his brother outside a Nashville nightclub and to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy a few days before.


On his 69th birthday in 2007, he recalled that he was living and performing in New York City at the time he wrote the song.

"I was intoxicated," Hebb told The Associated Press. "I came home and started playing the guitar. I looked up and saw what looked like a purple sky. I started writing because I'd never seen that before."

He included the song in his act at a bar called Brandy's and the audience liked it.

After a Japanese artist had a hit with the song in Asia and vibraphone player Dave Pike recorded it in the United States, Hebb recorded the vocal at Bell Sound in New York.

At the height of "Sunny" popularity, Hebb toured with the Beatles.

In a 2004 interview with The Tennessean newspaper, Hebb recalled that all four Beatles were nice.

"John (Lennon) and George (Harrison) were very quiet," he said. "But Ringo (Starr) and Paul (McCartney) were more active and easier to get to know. It was just something to be with those cats."

In 1971, Lou Rawls won a Grammy award for "A Natural Man," written by Hebb and Sandy Baron. In 2004, Broadcast Music Incorporated honored Hebb for 6 million airings of "Sunny."

As recently as 2007, Hebb was still writing songs and had his own publishing company and record label, Hebb Cats.

Hebb was born to blind parents and raised in Nashville. He joined the Navy in 1955 where he played the trumpet in a jazz band.

In the 1950s Hebb also played and danced with Roy Acuff's country band, the Smoky Mountain Boys, and became one of the first black musicians to perform on the Grand Ole Opry show in Nashville.

Funeral services were pending. Survivors include a daughter and four sisters.
  1. groups:
    Entertainment,   Music,   Culture,   Current Tonight,   5 more
  2. tags:
    Jazz,  R&B,  Soul,  Bobby Hebb,  2 more
  3.     
    |

4 comments // Sunny One So True, I Love You... | Bobby Hebb, Singer/Songwriter of 1966 Hit "Sunny," Has Died

  • iLoveOlivier
  • EthicalVegan
    • 0
      EthicalVegan  
    • Image

    • http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/04/arts/music/04hebb.html

      August 3, 2010
      Bobby Hebb, Singer of 1966 Hit ‘Sunny,’ Dies at 72
      By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

      NASHVILLE (AP) — Bobby Hebb, whose 1966 hit “Sunny” became a pop classic, died here on Tuesday. He was 72.

      His death, at Centennial Medical Center, was announced by his family. No cause was given.

      “Sunny” reached No. 2 on the Billboard pop chart. At the height of the song’s popularity, Mr. Hebb opened for the Beatles on their last United States tour.

      “Sunny” was recorded by many other singers, including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Dusty Springfield, Wilson Pickett, José Feliciano and Cher.

      The song is an upbeat ode to a woman whose smile “really eased the pain” when the singer’s “life was filled with rain.” It features the catchy refrain “Sunny one so true, I love you.”

      Mr. Hebb said in several interviews that he wrote it to lift his spirits when his brother was killed outside a Nashville nightclub in 1963, shortly after the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

      Mr. Hebb never had another hit as big as “Sunny,” but remained active as both a singer and a songwriter. In 1971, Lou Rawls won a Grammy award for “A Natural Man,” which Mr. Hebb wrote with Sandy Baron. As recently as 2007, Mr. Hebb was still writing songs and had his own publishing company and record label, Hebb Cats.

      Born to blind parents and raised in Nashville, Mr. Hebb played trumpet in a Navy jazz band and later worked with the country singer Roy Acuff, becoming one of the first black musicians to perform at the Grand Ole Opry.

      Survivors include a daughter and four sisters.

      http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/08/04/arts/HEBB-obit/HEBB-obit-popup.jp...

    • 1 year ago
  • EthicalVegan
    • 0
      EthicalVegan  
    • Image
    • EthicalVegan:

      http://www.spinner.com/2010/08/03/sunny-songwriter-bobby-hebb-passes-away/

      Spinner

      'Sunny' Songwriter Bobby Hebb Passes Away

      Bobby HebbThe Associated Press reports that songwriter Bobby Hebb died on Tuesday at the age of 72. A spokesperson for the funeral home told the Associated Press that Hebb passed away at Centennial Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., while friends relayed that he had been battling lung cancer.

      Hebb performed in a number of bands over the years and, significantly, once headlined a tour featuring the Beatles. Yes, you read that right. Prior to that, in the early 1950s, he became one of the first black artists ever to appear on the Grand Ole Opry and his list of similar accomplishments is simply staggering.

      Still, Hebb will most of all be remembered for penning the household hit, 'Sunny.' The song was listed as the 18th most performed song in the entire BMI catalog, according to a 1990 chart released by that organization, and Hebb's own performance of the tune landed in second place on the pop charts for 1966. Subsequent renditions by Frank Sinatra, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and hundreds more made the song ubiquitous.

      While Hebb's accomplishments reach far beyond 'Sunny,' it is that song's eternal melody that will keep the Nashville native's memory alive for generation

    • 1 year ago
  • EthicalVegan
    • 0
      EthicalVegan  
    • Image
    • EthicalVegan:

      Variety

      http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118022550.html?categoryid=16&cs=1

      Posted: Tue., Aug. 3, 2010, 4:20pm PT

      'Sunny' songwriter dies at 72
      Bobby Hebb wrote song after brother, JFK were killed
      By CHRISTOPHER MORRIS

      Bobby Hebb, whose 1966 hit "Sunny" was a magnum opus of the era's sunshine pop, died in Nashville, Tenn., on Aug. 3 of cancer. He was 72.

      According to a bio in the R&B compilation "Night Train to Nashville," Hebb was raised in a musical family, and he performed as a child with his brother Harold at Nashville's Bijou Theater. Spotted by Roy Acuff, he played miscellaneous instruments in the country star's band in the early '50s.

      After Harold Hebb, a former member of the vocal group the Marigolds, was fatally knifed outside a Music City club on Nov. 23, 1963 -- the day after John F. Kennedy's assassination -- his younger sibling was moved to write his best-known song.

      Recorded with producer Jerry Ross and arranger Joe Renzotti in New York, "Sunny" became a No. 2 pop hit on the Philips label in summer 1966. The blissful tune was covered by dozens of artists, including Marvin Gaye, Wilson Pickett and Jose Feliciano.

      Hebb's follow-up singles failed to click. He remained active locally in Nashville into the new millennium, operating his label and publishing firm Hebb Cats.

      http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_fa0DeBhquOw/RteD1YlSsAI/AAAAAAAAAAw/xzO1Pm3ry3I/s320/B...

    • 1 year ago
more from Music:
from the community

top videos