SUNNY, My Week in a Song for Week #44 of 2015

SUNNY, words and music by Bobby Hebb (1966).

My Kamaka, Sunny, traveled to New Mexico with us last week. By some stroke of magic, Scoutie no longer requires a bag to fly, so now Sunny can be my second carry on. For life. We endured high altitude & moisture changes, and she suffered a small nick in her koa wood, but Sunny told me she didn't mind getting banged up a bit if it means I will play her all over the world.

At our breathwork retreat I found myself saying in circle, "All I want is to make this instrument's dreams for herself come true." I hadn't ever had that thought before, but it is one of the truest statements I have ever made. All I can think when I play her now is that I must practice with joy. Often. This uke has big dreams!

There's been a song in my heart ever since I brought her home from Honolulu in January, and about three weeks ago I flipped through The Daily Ukulele Leap Year Edition and there it was on p. 331. BMI has rated Sunny #25 of its Top 100 Songs of the [last] Century.

A bit about Bobby Hebb. He and his brother Harold began performing as a song-and-dance duo, in Nashville, TN, when Bobby was three and Harold was nine. Their parents were blind musicians. On the same day that President John F Kennedy was assassinated, Bobby's brother Harold was stabbed to death outside a Nashville nightclub.

So Hebb's song Sunny was born of great tragedy. He has said,about "Sunny": "All my intentions were to think of happier times and pay tribute to my brother - basically looking for a brighter day - because times were at a low. . ."

I am so grateful to Hebb for this song I can sing fifty (50!) years later to celebrate my gratitude. For my past life in California. For my current life in Tennessee. For the dog of my dreams. For the ukulele voice of many lifetimes.

This entry could be titled "My Year 2015 in a Song." I hope you enjoy it.