You Are the Sunshine of My Life

"You Are the Sunshine of My Life"
Single by Stevie Wonder
from the album Talking Book
B-side	"Tuesday Heartbreak"
Released	March 1973
Format	7" 45 RPM
Recorded	1972
Genre	Soul pop
Length	2:58
Label	Tamla
Writer(s)	Stevie Wonder
Producer(s)	Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder singles chronology
"Superstition" (1972) "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" (1973) "Higher Ground" (1973)

"You Are the Sunshine of My Life" is a 1973 single released by Stevie Wonder. The song became Wonder's third No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and his first No. 1 on the Easy Listening chart.^[1] It won Wonder a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, and was nominated for both Record of the Year and Song of the Year.^[2] This song was the second single released from the 1972 album entitled Talking Book, which stayed at number one on the R&B charts for three weeks.^[2] The song opened 194 Radio City on 21 October 1974.

Rolling Stone ranked the song #281 on their list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

The first two lines of the song are sung, not by Wonder, but by Jim Gilstrap and with Lani Groves singing the next two lines.^[3] The single version of the song differs from the album version with the addition of horns to the mix.

Chart performance

Weekly charts Chart (1973) Peak position Australia 10 Canada 5 Germany 42 Ireland 23 New Zealand[4] 8 UK 7 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 1 U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary 1 U.S. Billboard R&B 3 U.S. Cash Box Top 100[5] 1

Year-end charts Chart (1973) Rank Australia 74 Canada [6] 64 UK[7] 100 U.S. Billboard Hot 100[8] 19 U.S. Cash Box[9] 59

In popular culture

The song was used in the ABC sitcom Taxi in the season 5 episode "Jim's Inheritance". A tape was left by Jim Ignatowski's late father to remind him that he was his favorite of his three children.

See also

• List of Hot 100 number-one singles of 1973 (U.S.)
• List of number-one adult contemporary singles of 1973 (U.S.)

References

1. Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001. Record Research. p. 262.
2. Hogan, Ed. "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" (song review), AllMusic.com.
3. Bronson, Fred (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits: Updated and Expanded 5th Edition. Random House Digital, Inc. p. 333.
4. "flavour of new zealand - search listener". Flavourofnz.co.nz. Retrieved 2016-10-08.
6. http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?brws_s=1&file_num=nlc008388.100214&type=2&interval=24&PHPSESSID=dtlhqtcdftn9t40n27r4hds2h0
7. "Top 100 1973 - UK Music Charts". Uk-charts.top-source.info. Retrieved 2016-10-08.
8. "Top 100 Hits of 1973/Top 100 Songs of 1973". Musicoutfitters.com. Retrieved 2016-10-08.

External links

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics