Professor of Critical Musicology at the University of Leeds, Prof Derek B Scott, argues that the song is influenced by the Viennese popular style. He writes:
Although the second verse was often performed by an orchestra conducted by Peter Knight over the duo's closing credits, they only ever sang the first verse, the second one being purely instrumental, with Eric and Ernie performing a "skip dance" to exit the stage. The dance has been attributed to BBC producer, John Ammonds, and Eric's son Gary recalls that the inspiration for the skip-dance came from a Groucho Marx film sequence.
Morecambe & Wise tributes
When Eric Morecambe died in 1984 so closely associated were the pair with the song that it was the title of the Bring Me Sunshine tribute show at the London Palladium held in his memory. Ten years later, the BBC ran another 3-part tribute, also titled Bring Me Sunshine. Lyrics to the song were also read at Morecambe's funeral by Ernie Wise. Wise went on to declare it his favourite song during his appearance on the BBC radio programme, Desert Island Discs in Oct 1990. On the same programme three months later, the song was also a choice of jazz singerAdelaide Hall, and has since been the choice of several other guests including Dawn French and Rankin. It has also been used for the title of several books about the pair. When Morecambe & Wise defected from the BBC to Thames Television in 1978, directly after their record-breaking Christmas Special the previous year, the signature tune was dropped. It was however used in later installments of these shows.
BBC promotional clip
In 2011, the BBC used the song in a promotional clip for the 75th anniversary of its main channel, beginning with the familiar opening shot of Morecambe & Wise before leading into a montage of other famous moments from the channel's history, most of which were edited so as to lip-sync with the song.
The 30 Nov 1968 edition of Billboard magazine predicted that Willie Nelson's version of "Bring Me Sunshine", would reach the Top 20 in the Country Single Charts, eventually reaching #13 in 1969. It was included in 1974 on the budget compilation album, Spotlight on Willie Nelson. A different mix appears on Nelson's 2009 album Naked Willie; this version is featured in the closing credits of the 2010 film The Crazies. The song was also covered by American singer Brenda Lee on her 1969 album, Johnny One Time. In 2013, Willie Nelson's version was used as the theme to ITV sitcom "The Job Lot".
