B-side "Prism Song" Recorded 1964 Label RCA Victor | Released July 1964 | |
"We'll Sing in the Sunshine" is a 1964 hit song written and recorded by Gale Garnett which reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the week ending 17 October 1964. The song also enjoyed success on easy listening and country music radio stations, spending seven weeks at number one on the Billboard Easy Listening chart and number 42 on the country chart. The Cash Box Top 100 ranked "We'll Sing in the Sunshine" at number one for the week of 31 October 1964, and it also reached number one in Garnett's native New Zealand that November.: in Australia "We'll Sing in the Sunshine" afforded Garnett a Top Ten hit with a #10 peak in October 1964. Garnett's sole Top 40 hit, "We'll Sing in the Sunshine" won the Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording in 1965.
Cover versions
In the UK, "We'll Sing in the Sunshine" was covered by The Lancastrians in a version produced by Shel Talmy and featuring guitar work from both Jimmy Page and Big Jim Sullivan. It charted at number 44 in the UK in December 1964. Mark Wynter had a non-charting UK single release of "We'll Sing in the Sunshine" in 1966.
Alma Cogan recorded the song in German as "Ich Liebe Die Sonne" which was the B-side of her number 39 German hit "Hillbilly Boy" (1965). A Danish rendering of "We'll Sing in the Sunshine" entitled "Vi skynder os langsomt" was recorded by Gitte Hænning on October 22, 1965. Dick and Dee Dee released a version of the song in 1969 as the B-side to their single, "In the Season of Our Love".
"We'll Sing in the Sunshine" was a minor C&W hit in 1970 for Lawanda Lindsey, reaching number 63, serving as the title cut for an album as it did in 1978 for Helen Reddy. Reddy's version, produced by Kim Fowley, was issued as a single and reached #12 on the Easy Listening chart, but became the first lead single from a Reddy album to miss the Billboard Hot 100. Nonetheless, the song took on new life when Reddy sang the song on The Muppets Show while singing and dancing with Sopwith the Camel.
"We'll Sing in the Sunshine" has also been recorded as an album cut in 1964 by Bobbi Martin and also by Dean Martin, in 1965 by the Fleetwoods and also Jane Morgan plus as a duet by Bobby Bare and Skeeter Davis, in 1967 by Sonny & Cher, in 1969 by Wanda Jackson, in 1972 by Wayne Newton, in 1974 by Susan Maughan and in 1984 by Dolly Parton on her album of 1950s and 1960s covers The Great Pretender,. Trini Lopez also recorded "We'll Sing in the Sunshine" his version appearing on the 1964 UK EP release Trini's Folk Mood. In addition the Mike Curb Congregation recorded "We'll Sing in the Sunshine": their version served as the B-side for some copies of their 1970 hit "Burning Bridges".