THE
SUNSHINE
YOU
GIVE
Sunny, yesterday my life was filled with rain...
Nashville, 1963. Sunrise. Bobby Hebb, a 22 year old musician, is sitting on his porch with his guitar, his sad gaze to the red morning sky. John F. Kennedy had been killed on the previous day, his brother Hal had died that night in a knife-fight. Suddenly the melody for a song appears, one that would change the music world. Bobby Hebb writes Sunny, the unforgettable song with words of hope and melancholic undertone.
From Stevie Wonder to James Brown, from Jose Feliciano to Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, and Shirley Bassey: they all love this song. Sunny will be interpreted around 800 times, the most covered song in the history of pop music. Regardless of country or culture it radiates life and is an expression of universal love. One could fill entire albums with Sunny. In France it is covered by chason artists, in Mexico by ska musicians, in Brazil bosa nova versions appear.
The entire world knows the song, but hardly anyone its author, Bobby Hebb, and his striking life history. Born in Nashville in 1939, the son of blind musicians, he made his way through the night-club scene already as a child singing and tap-dancing. In the 1950's he played back-up for local country-and-western greats, was the first Afro-American to appear on the stage of the famed Grand Ole Opry, and made head-roads otherwise forbidden to black musicians. His breakthrough came in the in mid-1960's with Sunny and his debut album. The Beatles took him their last American tour a co-headliner. But his career ended quickly, shattered by fame. Trouble with legal authorities, substance abuse, and personal misfortune forced him to hang up his music career for good in the 1970's. He went to work for the turn-pike authority and withdrew into anonymity. But his musical legacy, Sunny, continued to inspire. Hundreds of interpretations were recorded. In 2005 came the turning point. At the age of almost 70, he recorded his first album in 35 years. Another is due at the end of 2007. With his irresistable charisma and vitality he will return to the stage, fill concert halls, and travel the world again. And he'll play Sunny, with the same feeling as 1963.
The Sunshine you give portrays Bobby Hebb from his beginning in Nashville to the tour of his upcoming album. Through the story of his life, the story of Soul and R'n'B from the 1950's until today will be explored. Parallel to this, musicians around the world such as Stevie Wonder, Jamiroquai, Spanish underground musicians, and others will tell us what it was about the song that fascinated them so much, what it was about the moment. Whether Sunny gave them the sunshine back. The finale will be on stage: Bobby Hebb sings with the other musicians a unique unplugged version of the song to liberate the hearts of the audience.
Nashville, 1963. Sunrise. Bobby Hebb, a 22 year old musician, is sitting on his porch with his guitar, his sad gaze to the red morning sky. John F. Kennedy had been killed on the previous day, his brother Hal had died that night in a knife-fight. Suddenly the melody for a song appears, one that would change the music world. Bobby Hebb writes Sunny, the unforgettable song with words of hope and melancholic undertone.
From Stevie Wonder to James Brown, from Jose Feliciano to Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, and Shirley Bassey: they all love this song. Sunny will be interpreted around 800 times, the most covered song in the history of pop music. Regardless of country or culture it radiates life and is an expression of universal love. One could fill entire albums with Sunny. In France it is covered by chason artists, in Mexico by ska musicians, in Brazil bosa nova versions appear.
The entire world knows the song, but hardly anyone its author, Bobby Hebb, and his striking life history. Born in Nashville in 1939, the son of blind musicians, he made his way through the night-club scene already as a child singing and tap-dancing. In the 1950's he played back-up for local country-and-western greats, was the first Afro-American to appear on the stage of the famed Grand Ole Opry, and made head-roads otherwise forbidden to black musicians. His breakthrough came in the in mid-1960's with Sunny and his debut album. The Beatles took him their last American tour a co-headliner. But his career ended quickly, shattered by fame. Trouble with legal authorities, substance abuse, and personal misfortune forced him to hang up his music career for good in the 1970's. He went to work for the turn-pike authority and withdrew into anonymity. But his musical legacy, Sunny, continued to inspire. Hundreds of interpretations were recorded. In 2005 came the turning point. At the age of almost 70, he recorded his first album in 35 years. Another is due at the end of 2007. With his irresistable charisma and vitality he will return to the stage, fill concert halls, and travel the world again. And he'll play Sunny, with the same feeling as 1963.
The Sunshine you give portrays Bobby Hebb from his beginning in Nashville to the tour of his upcoming album. Through the story of his life, the story of Soul and R'n'B from the 1950's until today will be explored. Parallel to this, musicians around the world such as Stevie Wonder, Jamiroquai, Spanish underground musicians, and others will tell us what it was about the song that fascinated them so much, what it was about the moment. Whether Sunny gave them the sunshine back. The finale will be on stage: Bobby Hebb sings with the other musicians a unique unplugged version of the song to liberate the hearts of the audience.
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