"We'll Sing in the Sunshine" is a 1964 hit song written and recorded by

Gale Garnett Gale Zoë Garnett (born 17 July 1942) is a New Zealand-born Canadian singer best known in the United States for her self-penned, Grammy-winning folk hit " We'll Sing in the Sunshine". Garnett has since carved out a career as an author and act ...

which reached No. 2 in Canada, and No. 4 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart for the week ending 17 October 1964. It also enjoyed success on easy listening and country music radio stations, spending seven weeks at No. 1 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Easy Listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to the 1970s. It is related to middle of the road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit s ...

chart and No. 42 on the country chart. The ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', is an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' Top 100 ranked "We'll Sing in the Sunshine" at No. 1 for the week of 31 October 1964, and it also reached No. 1 in Garnett's native New Zealand that November. In Australia, "We'll Sing in the Sunshine" afforded Garnett a Top Ten hit with a No. 10 peak in October 1964. Garnett's sole Top 40 hit, "We'll Sing in the Sunshine" won the

Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording The Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording was awarded from 1960 to 1986. During this time the award had several minor name changes: *From 1960 to 1961 the award was known as Best Performance - Folk *From 1962 to 1967 it was awa ...

in 1965. The song was inducted into the

Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame () is a Canadian non-profit organization, founded in 1998 by Frank Davies, that inducts Canadians into their ''Hall of Fame'' within three different categories: songwriters, songs, and those others who have m ...

in 2015.

Lyrics

In the song, a woman tells her would-be lover that she does not believe in long-term relationships. She says she will give him a year, then leave him, and assures him he will look back fondly on their year together.

Chart history

Weekly charts

;Gale Garnett ;The Lancastrians ;LaWanda Lindsey ;Helen Reddy

Year-end charts

Cover versions

In the UK, "We'll Sing in the Sunshine" was covered by The Lancastrians in a version produced by

Shel Talmy Sheldon Talmy (August 11, 1937 – November 13, 2024) was an American record producer, songwriter, and arranger, best known for his work in England in the 1960s with the Who, the Kinks, and many other artists. Talmy arranged and produced hits ...

and featuring guitar work from both

Jimmy Page James Patrick Page (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician and producer who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the Rock music, rock band Led Zeppelin. Page began his career as a studio session musician in Lo ...

and

Big Jim Sullivan James George Tomkins (14 February 1941 – 2 October 2012), known professionally as Big Jim Sullivan, was an English guitarist. Best known as a session guitarist, he was one of the most in-demand studio musicians in the UK in the 1960s ...

. It charted at No. 44 in the UK in December 1964.

The New Christy Minstrels The New Christy Minstrels are an American large-ensemble folk music group founded by Randy Sparks in 1961. The group has recorded more than 20 albums and scored several hits, including "Green, Green (song), Green, Green", "Saturday Night", "Tod ...

included a bossa-nova version of the song on their 1965 album, ''Chim Chim Cher-ee''.

Mark Wynter Mark Wynter (born Terence Sidney Lewis; 29 January 1943) is an English singer and actor, who had four Top 20 singles in the 1960s, including "Venus in Blue Jeans" and " Go Away Little Girl". He enjoyed a lengthy career from 1960 to 1968 as a p ...

had a non-charting UK single release of "We'll Sing in the Sunshine" in 1966.

Sonny & Cher Sonny & Cher were an American pop and entertainment duo in the 1960s and 1970s, made up of spouses Sonny Bono and Cher. The couple started their career in the mid-1960s as rhythm and blues, R&B backing singers for record producer Phil Spector. ...

recorded the song for their 1967 album, '' In Case You're in Love'', and

Wanda Jackson Wanda LaVonne Jackson (born October 20, 1937) is an American retired singer and songwriter. Since the 1950s, she has recorded and released music in the genres of Rock music, rock, Country music, country and Gospel music, gospel. She was among th ...

covered it on her 1969 album '' The Happy Side of Wanda''. "We'll Sing in the Sunshine" was a minor C&W hit in 1970 for LaWanda Lindsey, reaching No. 63, serving as the title cut for Lindsey's album.

Helen Reddy Helen Maxine Reddy (25 October 194129 September 2020) was an Australian-American singer, actress, television host, and activist. Born in Melbourne to a show business family, Reddy started her career as an entertainer at age four. She sang on ra ...

remade the song, with

Kim Fowley Kim Vincent Fowley (July 21, 1939 – January 15, 2015) was an American record producer, songwriter and musician who was behind a string of novelty and cult pop rock singles in the 1960s, and managed the Runaways in the 1970s. He has been ...

producing, for her May 1978 album release '' We'll Sing in the Sunshine'' with the track being released as advance single on 28 March, with a special 1 March advance release in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

, in hopes a new single release from Reddy would foment interest in the singer's high-profile Easter Sunday (26 March) Sheraton Waikiki shows, and also that a "sunshine" song might be afforded an early breakout in a tropical region. The single failed to arouse any evident

Top 40 radio Contemporary hit radio (CHR, also known as contemporary hits, hit list, current hits, hit music, top 40, or pop radio) is a radio format common in many countries that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top ...

interest, becoming the first lead single from a Helen Reddy album to fall short of the

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), o ...

in ''

'': "We'll Sing in the Sunshine" afforded Reddy her last Top 20 ranking on ''Billboards

Adult Contemporary chart The Adult Contemporary chart is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary radio stations in the United States. The chart is compiled based on airplay data submitted to ''Billboard'' by stati ...

. Reddy's live recording of "We'll Sing in the Sunshine" was featured on her concert album '' Live in London'' recorded at the

Palladium Palladium is a chemical element; it has symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1802 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas (formally 2 Pallas), ...

in May 1978. In 1984,

Dolly Parton Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, actress, and philanthropist, known primarily as a country music, country musician. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton's debut album ...

sang the song on her album of covers, ''

The Great Pretender "The Great Pretender" is a popular song recorded by the Platters, with Tony Williams on lead vocals, and released as a single in November 1955. The words and music were written by Buck Ram, the Platters' manager and producer who was a successf ...

'', released by

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...

. It was one of her last records with RCA.

References

External links

Song lyrics
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Well Sing In The Sunshine 1964 songs 1964 singles Cashbox number-one singles Gale Garnett songs Helen Reddy songs LaWanda Lindsey songs RCA Victor singles Capitol Records singles Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording