In 1973, John Denver released “Sunshine On My Shoulders”. Written by Denver, along with his band members Dick Kniss and Mike Taylor, “Sunshine On My Shoulders” was first an album track on Denver’s 1971 Poems, Prayers & Promises project. But two years later, Denver included the song on his John Denver’s Greatest Hits album, releasing it as a single.
“Sunshine On My Shoulders” may not have been the massive hit it became if not for another woman’s heartbreaking tragedy. The song was used in a TV movie called Sunshine, about a woman named Lyn Helton who had an incurable form of cancer. Determined to never be forgotten, Helton used her remaining time on earth to record messages for her family. The show also spawned a spin-off series of the same name.
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“It was the true story of Lyn Helton, an incredibly courageous lady who chose to live her short life to the fullest even though she knew she would die of a rare bone cancer in a matter of months,” Denver says. “It seems that in the last year of her life, she found some happiness in my music. I was most honored to have my songs used as part of that television show.”
The Message in “Sunshine On My Shoulders” by John Denver
“Sunshine On My Shoulders” begins with, “Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy / Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry / Sunshine on the water looks so lovely / Sunshine almost always makes me high / If I had a day that I could give you / I’d give to you the day just like today / If I had a song that I could sing for you / I’d sing a song to make you feel this way.”
When Denver wrote “Sunshine On My Shoulders”, he said the song intentionally has more than one meaning.
“On one level, it was about the virtues of love,” he explains. “On another, more deeply felt level, it reached for something the whole world could embrace.”
By the time “Sunshine On My Shoulders” was released, Denver already had several hit songs, including his “Take Me Home, Country Roads” single. But in the liner notes for John Denver’s Greatest Hits, Denver’s producer Milt Okun says it will always be a classic.
“‘Sunshine On My Shoulders’ is one of the best songs I’ve ever heard,” Okun says. “It’s an amazing exercise in the use of two chords – the one chord and the four chords, back and forth. It’s hypnotic music with a glorious melody and very poetic lyrics. I think it’s a great work of art. For me, ‘Sunshine’ presents John’s deepest feelings. It still blows me away.”
Photo by Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns
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