February 5, 1940: Jimmie Davis Records "You Are My Sunshine"

Jimmie Davis on September 11, 1999, his 100th Birthday

February 5, 1940: Jimmie Davis records "You Are My Sunshine," with the Charles Mitchell Orchestra, at Decca Records' studio in New York. Davis claimed he had written the song with Mitchell.

It is unlikely that either man had a hand in writing it. A 1990 article in Chronicles Magazine, written by Theodore Pappas, suggested that Oliver Hood, who worked with a country music group called The Rice Brothers, wrote it in 1933. But Paul Rice, one of the Brothers, was still alive at that point, and he said he'd heard claims of having written it from "at least 20 people." Regardless, Davis bought Mitchell out, and got all the songwriting royalties.

What is clear is that the song was first recorded on August 22, 1939, by Marvin Taylor and Doug Spivey, who recorded as The Pine Ridge Boys. But the version by Davis is considered the definitive version, if for no other reason than that it is the most familiar one.

Davis' life spanned 3 centuries: He was born in 1899, and died in 2000. At the time he recorded the song, he was Public Safety Commissioner of the City of Shreveport, Louisiana. He was elected Governor of Louisiana in 1944, but spent a lot of time away from the State, including going to Hollywood to appear in movies. Unable to run for a 2nd term in 1948 under the State Constitution then in effect, he ran again in 1960, and won. Unfortunately, he was a segregationist.

Mitchell also went into politics, in a way, serving as the Registrar of Voters in Caddo Parish, Louisiana. (Louisiana, unique among States, calls its Counties "Parishes.") He lived until 1972, age 67. In 1977, the Louisiana legislature named "You Are My Sunshine" the official State Song.

Decca's studio was at 50 West 57th Street. A modern office building is on the site now. In 1942, Decca moved operations to the Pythian Temple, at 135 West 70th Street, and remained there through 1958. Bill Haley & His Comets recorded "Rock Around the Clock" there. The building is still there, but has been converted into condominiums, as "The Pythian."

The song has been recorded by just about every country singer, and Ray Charles turned it into an R&B song in 1962 and had a hit with it. In the 1980s, it was used in a commercial for Johnson's Baby Powder, showing a mother singing to her baby:

You are my sunshine.

My only sunshine.

You make me happy

when skies are gray.

You'll never know just

how much I love you.

Please don't take

my sunshine away.

The song has been adapted for many uses, including by fans of English soccer teams: "You are my (name of team), my only (name of team)…" But against the Merseyside teams, Liverpool and Everton, it becomes a rather unkind reference to crime and unwillingness to get a job: "You are a Scouser, a dirty Scouser. You're only happy on giro day! Your mum's out stealing, your dad's drug-dealing! Please don't take my hubcaps away!" ("Giro" is slang for unemployment insurance.)

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February 5, 1940 was a Monday. H.G. Giger, the Swiss artist who created the xenomorph model for the Alien film franchise, was born.

Baseball and football were out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. The NHL season was in progress, but no games were scheduled. So there were no scores on this day.