"Sunny" - The inspired song that has, in turn, inspired so many other artists

Bobby Hebb's 1966 hit

Rock ’n’ Roll with Me is a daily email newsletter (except Sunday) presenting one or more of my favorite danceable rock ’n’ roll songs, from the sixties onwards, along with some fun facts and memories.

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Song of the day

Bobby Hebb clearly believed that he was inspired and blessed when he wrote “Sunny,” a song that rose to number one on Cash Box, number two on the Billboard Hot 100, and number three on the Hot R&B chart in 1966. Even more impressively, the song has been covered over the years by an astounding number of artists (over 500) across a wide range of music genres and has influenced numerous pop and jazz songs with its unique chord progression, including Stevie Wonder’s “Don’t You Worry ‘bout a Thing.”

“I was in the right place at the right time and in the right frame of mind,” Bobby said in an interview before he died. “I was ready to receive what was being offered.”

He was musically ready as well. Bobby made his professional debut on his third birthday, doing a song-and-tap-dance routine with his nine-year-old brother Harold to help bring in money for his family. From that day onwards, Bobby was a working musician who received mentoring from, and performed and recorded with, one high-profile music industry insider after another. Biographers often focus on “Sunny,” but Bobby had a rich and varied career that I imagine most musicians would give their eyeteeth, or even sell their soul to the devil, to have. Because I can’t possibly do it justice, I encourage you to read Bill Dahl’s detailed summary of his career here.

Inspiration for his breakout song struck in 1963 after his brother was stabbed to death outside a Nashville nightclub the day after President John F. Kennedy Jr. was assassinated. As Bobby recounted, everyone was feeling negative at the time and needed a lift, and then, one morning, he saw a purple sunrise and both the lyrics and melody for “Sunny” came to him at the same time, something that he said “very seldom happens.”

I’ll share more of Bobby’s description of his creative process in the fun facts below, but let’s have a listen to the recorded version, produced by hitmaker Jerry Ross, which jumped to the top of the charts. Be sure to listen to the entire song, because it ramps up in excitement and intensity as it progresses. Here we go:

I think there are many reasons this song is so successful, but two of them are certainly Joe Renzetti’s arrangement and the backup vocals by Ashford & Simpson and Melba Moore. (It’s worth listening a second time to the role of the drums as well.)

Bobby performed the song live on the TV show Soul! in 1971, playing guitar himself and accompanied on bass guitar by jazz legend Ron Carter, who does a fantastic solo (around 5:00). (There’s more on Ron in fun facts below.) I think this version gives an even better sense of why this song is so compelling, and also why Bobby had such a long and impressive career.

Although I love Bobby’s version, it’s not the most danceable. I listened to a range of covers and my favorite, hands down, is the one below. Herewith the incomparable Ella Fitzgerald, who really lets loose and catapults us to our feet:

Some fun facts

• Bobby’s blind parents, William and Ovalla Hebb, were also musicians, leading Hebb’s Kitchen Cabinet Orchestra. His dad played the guitar and trumpet and his mom the guitar and piano.

• His brother Harold (‘Hal’) was a member of Johnny Bragg and the Marigolds, which had an R&B hit with “Rollin’ Stone” in 1955. Bobby said one of the intentions behind “Sunny” was to pay tribute to his brother.

• One of the people who gave Bobby a break was white bandleader and Grand Ole Opry star Roy Acuff. According to Bobby, “Roy Acuff was a pioneer breaking down the racial barrier, and he put me in a position to help break down the racial barrier.”

• Ron Carter, who accompanied Bobby on the Soul! TV show (above), is considered one of the most important bassists in history. He is also the most recorded, being on over 2,200 recordings. You can find an interview with him conducted by top music podcaster Rick Beato here.

• Trocadero (based in Hamburg, Germany) interviewed Bobby and released a wonderful eight-minute documentary (2016) that illuminates both his inspiration and his influence, as well as showcasing his spoon-playing skills, available on their website and also below.

• In that interview, Bobby reveals more of his creative process, saying that “The lyric spoke for itself…It produced a melody. It was just right there, under my fingers. All I had to do was just flick.” However, right up to the time of the recording session, he felt that something was missing, something that would capture people’s attention. When he added a drum roll at the beginning, he knew he had it. (I think the drums are key throughout.)

• Bobby toured with the Beatles as one of their opening acts on their last American tour in summer 1966, at a time when “Sunny” ranked above all Beatles songs then charting on the Billboard Hot 100.

Questions for discussion in the comments

1. What do you think made “Sunny” so successful?

2. What would you give your eyeteeth or sell your soul to the devil to have?

3. Do you agree with Ella that things ain’t what they used to be?

4. When were you in the right place at the right time in the right frame of mind? And what happened?

5. Have you ever tried to play the spoons? (Me neither. But I’ve tried to tap dance. Not for the weak of calf muscles, I found.)