The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame (CSHF) is pleased to announce its final song induction of 2015, We’ll Sing in the Sunshine,written and popularized by Canadian singer-songwriter Gale Zoë Garnett.
We’ll Sing in the Sunshine is the 12th song to be celebrated through Covered Classics, a collaboration between the CSHF and CBC/Radio-Canada that invites notable Canadian artists to perform their own rendition of a newly inducted song. Singer-songwriter and JUNO nominee Royal Wood offers a refreshing rendition of Garnett’s hit song.
“I grew up listening to AM radio stations and being influenced by iconic songs likeWe’ll Sing in the Sunshine“, says Royal Wood. “As a songwriter, Garnett perfectly captured the spirit of the 60’s – the song’s message of peace and happiness still resonates today.”
Garnett wrote the 1964 contemporary-folk song We’ll Sing in the Sunshine at the tender age of 14. While the song echoes the era’s recurring theme of peace and happiness, it also tells the story of a free-spirited young woman offering the alluring promise of love affair with no strings attached.
https://youtu.be/3GylINmRJpk?list=PL1RaDWkJ6ppu7FUvYsF3e1kQsuGxSyN1n
“As a writer, particularly as a songwriter, it’s an honour to have We’ll Sing in the Sunshine inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame,” says Gale Zoë Garnett. “This song has had an amazing journey and I’m so pleased to see its legacy live on through the CSHF and CBC/Radio-Canada’s Covered Classics series.”
We’ll Sing in the Sunshine was originally written for folksinger Hoyt Axton, who recorded it in 1963, but it wasn’t until the following year that the song achieved major success when Garnett, an unknown Canadian artist at the time, recorded her own version of the song as a 45-rpm single. By November 1964, We’ll Sing in the Sunshine had topped music charts in Canada, the U.S, Australia, and in Garnett’s native New Zealand. The song went on to win the 1965 Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Recording of 1964, beating out Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin’,and eventually went gold, selling 3.5 million copies by 1979.
We’ll Sing in the Sunshine has been covered by countless prominent artists, including Dean Martin, Wayne Newton, Dolly Parton, and Sonny and Cher, it was heard on television shows, on film soundtracks, and appeared on dozens of compilation albums throughout the 1970’s and beyond.
For a complete list of 2015 Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame song inductions and links to the new Covered Classics versions, visit: www.cshf.ca/2015-song-inductions.
