Sunny Came Home
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Sunny Came Home" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Single by Shawn Colvin | ||
| from the album A Few Small Repairs | ||
| Released | June 24, 1997 | |
| Format | CD | |
| Genre | Rock, Contemporary Folk | |
| Length | 7:47 | |
| Label | Columbia | |
| Writer(s) | Shawn Colvin, John Leventhal | |
| Producer(s) | Malcolm Burn | |
| Shawn Colvin singles chronology | ||
| "Get Out of This House" (1996) |
"Sunny Came Home" (1997) |
"You and the Mona Lisa" (1997) |
"Sunny Came Home" is a folk-rock song by American musician Shawn Colvin. It is the theme song to her 1996 concept album A Few Small Repairs, and quickly became a hit when it was released as a CD single in the summer of 1997.
The song tells the story of Sunny, "a frustrated housewife who torches her own home."[1] It is one of several "story songs" on A Few Small Repairs, a method of songwriting Colvin began experimenting with while writing for the album. The title of the song comes from the opening lyrics.
The song's calming and upbeat music, fronted by a distinctive folk guitar strum, contrasts sharply with the destructive lyrics, particularly the haunting bridge: "Count the years; you always knew it / Strike a match; go on and do it".[2]
"Sunny Came Home" is Colvin's most successful single to date. In the 1998 Grammy Awards, it was named Song of the Year and Record of the Year. It peaked at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, and likely would have achieved a higher peak had it been released commercially sooner to correspond with the song's airplay maximum: it was #1 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart for four weeks and also #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart for four weeks. On the Hot 100 Single Sales chart, however, it peaked at #29. Colvin's record label did not plan to release the track as a retail single until it became an airplay favorite on CHR as well as AC and Adult Alternative radio stations and the label deduced that the song appealed to a younger audience who might be willing to buy the single.
[edit] Track listing
- "Sunny Came Home" (Colvin, John Leventhal) (4:24)
- "What I Get Paid For" (Colvin, Neil Finn) (3:23)
[edit] References
- ^ "Bio." Shawn Colvin. Accessed July 14, 2006.
- ^ Colvin, Shawn, and Leventhal, John. Lyrics. "Sunny Came Home". A Few Small Repairs. CD. Columbia. 1996.
[edit] External links
- "Sunny Came Home". Answers.com.
- Shawn Colvin. Official Web site.
