Bobby Hebb of Sunny fame dead at age 72

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Bobby Hebb, whose 1966 pop music classic "Sunny"
> described a sincere smile from a woman that lifted the singer's burdens,
> died Tuesday.
> He was 72.
> Family members and a funeral home spokeswoman said Hebb died at Centennial
> Medical Center. Friends said he had lung cancer.
> "Sunny" also was recorded by many other singers, including Marvin Gaye,
> Wilson Pickett and Jose Feliciano.
> The song's key lines:
> "Sunny, yesterday my life was filled with rain.
> "Sunny, you smiled at me and really eased the pain.
> "The dark days are gone and the bright days are here.
> "My sunny one shines so sincere.
> "Sunny one so true, I love you."
> Hebb had said in several interviews that he wrote "Sunny" in response to
> the slaying of his brother outside a Nashville nightclub and to the
> assassination
> of President John F. Kennedy a few days before.
> On his 69th birthday in 2007, he recalled that he was living and
> performing in New York City at the time he wrote the song.
> "I was intoxicated," Hebb told The Associated Press. "I came home and
> started playing the guitar. I looked up and saw what looked like a purple
> sky. I started
> writing because I'd never seen that before."
> He included the song in his act at a bar called Brandy's and the audience
> liked it.
> After a Japanese artist had a hit with the song in Asia and vibraphone
> player Dave Pike recorded it in the United States, Hebb recorded the vocal
> at Bell
> Sound in New York.
> At the height of "Sunny" popularity, Hebb toured with the Beatles.
> In a 2004 interview with The Tennessean newspaper, Hebb recalled that all
> four Beatles were nice.
> "John (Lennon) and George (Harrison) were very quiet," he said. "But Ringo
> (Starr) and Paul (McCartney) were more active and easier to get to know.
> It was
> just something to be with those cats."
> In 1971, Lou Rawls won a Grammy award for "A Natural Man," written by Hebb
> and Sandy Baron. Broadcast Music Incorporated said Tuesday there have been
> 7
> million airings of "Sunny."
> As recently as 2007, Hebb was still writing songs and had his own
> publishing company and record label, Hebb Cats.
> Hebb was born to blind parents and raised in Nashville. He joined the Navy
> in 1955 where he played the trumpet in a jazz band.
> In the 1950s Hebb also played and danced with Roy Acuff's country band,
> the Smoky Mountain Boys, and became one of the first black musicians to
> perform
> on the Grand Ole Opry show in Nashville.
> Funeral services were pending. Survivors include a daughter and four
sisters.