Why this tune?
This week’s song is a soul jazz classic written by Bobby Hebb that BMI ranked as one of the top songs of the 20th century. Hebb’s 1966 recording was a hit, and the song was quickly picked up by vocalists and instrumental performers who recorded over 500 covers of the song.
The popularity of the song makes sense. It’s a short 16-bar form with chords that are easy to learn and fun to play over. Wikipedia reports that Hebb wrote the song, and its deliberately positive lyrics, after his brother was murdered in Nashville. The chorus reads like a sincere memorial to a lost bright light:
Sunny, yesterday my life was filled with rain
Sunny, you smiled at me and really eased the pain
Now the dark days are done and the bright days are here
My Sunny one shines so sincere
Sunny one so true, I love you
Hebb’s original version and many of the covers modulate the melody up chromatically through several keys in the course of the song (Hebb takes it up four times!). For this short demo I modulated up only once.
Tunes On Tuesday Reel
Check it out!
Bobby Hebb
Oren Levine, jazz pianist and songwriter 