B-side "How Good It Is" Format 7" single Genre Reggae | Released June 23, 1972 Recorded 1972 Length 2:45 | |
“I Can See Clearly Now” is a song written, composed, and originally recorded by Johnny Nash. It was a single from the album of the same name and achieved success in the United States and the United Kingdom when it was released in 1972, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was covered by many artists throughout the years, including a 1993 hit version by Jimmy Cliff, who re-recorded it for the motion picture soundtrack of Cool Runnings, where it reached the top 20 at No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Contents
Johnny Nash version
After Nash wrote and composed the original version, he recorded it in London with members of the Fabulous Five Inc., and produced it himself. Its arrangements and style are both heavily laced with reggae influences. Nash had cooperated with Bob Marley in the past, and his approach drew strongly from Marley's reggae style.
Track listings
- "I Can See Clearly Now" – 2:44
- "How Good It Is" – 2:38
- "I Can See Clearly Now" – 2:44
- "Cupid" – 3:30
Chart performance
After making modest chart advances for a month, the RIAA-certified gold single unexpectedly took only two weeks to vault from No. 20 to No. 5 to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on November 4, 1972, remaining atop this chart for four weeks, and also spent the same four weeks atop the adult contemporary chart.
Jimmy Cliff version
Reggae singer Jimmy Cliff recorded a cover of the song for the 1993 movie Cool Runnings. It was released as a single in 1994, reaching No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was Cliff's first single to make the Hot 100 in 25 years, and is his highest-charting single in the United States.
Other covers
The song also appears in various other films, such as Grosse Pointe Blank, The Break-up, Thelma & Louise, Antz, Deep Blue Sea, Envy, Hitch, Igor, Shrek 2's "Far Far Away Idol," "Viktor Vogel – Commercial Man," and Jennifer's Body, as well in a 2009 advertisement for Lipton in the Middle East and Russia. It is also briefly sung by Cheech in the movie Up in Smoke.
It has also been covered by these artists:
R&B guitarist Jonathan Butler recorded a cover from his 2010 album So Strong.
In November of 2002, the song was featured prominently in "The Freak," an episode of the NBC police drama television series Boomtown.
In November of 2016, a cover version of the song by the Hothouse Flowers was featured in the premiere episode of British Motoring show, The Grand Tour, causing the song to reach the number 1 position on the iTunes's Top 40 UK Rock Song chart in late 2016.