"Sunny" is a song written by Bobby Hebb.

It is one of the most covered popular songs, with hundreds of [1] versions released. BMI rates "Sunny" number 25 in its "Top 100 songs of the century." Hebb's parents, William and Ovalla Hebb, were both blind musicians. Hebb and his older brother Harold performed as a song-and-dance duo in Nashville, beginning when Bobby was three and Harold was nine. Hebb performed on a TV show hosted by country music record producer Owen Bradley. Hebb wrote the song in the 48 hours following a double tragedy on November 22, 1963, the day U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated and Hebb's older brother Harold was stabbed to death outside a Nashville nightclub. Hebb was devastated by both events and many critics say that those events & critically the loss of his older brother inspired the lyrics & tune. According to Hebb, he merely wrote the song as an expression of a preference for a "sunny" disposition over a "lousy" disposition [2] following the murder of his brother. Events influenced Hebb's songwriting, but his melody, crossing over into R&B (#3 on U.S. R&B chart) Country and Pop (#2 on U.S. Popchart), together with the optimistic lyrics, came from the artist's desire to express that one should always "look at the bright side"; a direct quote from the author. Hebb has said about "Sunny": "All my intentions were to think of happier times & pay tribute to my brother basically looking for a brighter day because times were at a low. After I wrote it, I thought 'Sunny' just might be a different approach to what Johnny Bragg was talking about in 'Just Walkin' in the Rain.'" The personnel on the original recording included Joe Shepley, Burt Collins on trumpet, Micky Gravine on trombone, Artie Kaplan and Joe Grimaldi on sax, Artie Butler on piano, Joe Renzetti and Al Gorgoni on guitar, Joe Macho on bass, Al Rogers on drums and George Devens on percussion. the song was originally recorded while the session was in overtime, so many of the studio musicians booked for that date had to leave early for other recording sessions they were booked for. "Sunny" was originally part of an 18-song demo recorded by producer Jerry Ross, also famous for Spanky and Our Gang, Keith's "98.6" and Jay and the Techniques (Hebb was the first artist to cover "Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie", but didn't want to be considered a novelty act and let the song go to Jay Proctor). "Sunny" was first recorded in Japan by Mieko "Miko" Hirota the "Connie Francis of Japan", [by whom?] where it was said to have done wel