Good Day Sunshine

"Good Day Sunshine"
Cover of the Northern Songs sheet music (licensed to Sonora Musikförlag)
Song by the Beatles
from the album Revolver
Released5 August 1966
Recorded8–9 June 1966
StudioEMI, London
Genre
Length2:09
LabelParlophone
Songwriter(s)Lennon–McCartney
Producer(s)George Martin

"Good Day Sunshine" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1966 album Revolver. It was written mainly by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. McCartney intended it as a song in the style of the Lovin' Spoonful's contemporaneous hit single "Daydream". The recording includes multiple pianos played in the barrelhouse style and evokes a vaudevillian mood.

The composition contains key changes and metric anomalies, and closes with voices chanting the song title. Together with its lyrics celebrating romantic love and sunshine, the recording contrasts with the more austere and experimental aesthetic of Revolver. Among music critics, some writers have welcomed the song's lightheartedness while others view it as a track that dilutes the album's strengths.

"Good Day Sunshine" has been covered by the Tremeloes, Claudine Longet and Robbie Williams. McCartney re-recorded the song for his 1984 film Give My Regards to Broad Street and has regularly performed it in concert. The song was used as the wake-up music on the Space Shuttle mission STS-135. In November 2005, McCartney played it live to the crew of the International Space Station as part of a concert link-up to the space station.

  1. ^ Miles 2001, p. 239: "Perfect summer pop for the era".
  2. ^ Goldsmith 2019, p. 39: "Side Two begins with ['Good Day Sunshine',] Revolver's most pop-rock oriented song."
  3. ^ Simonelli 2013, p. 103: "Sunshine symbolized beauty, happiness and strength, and was a continually recurring theme in psychedelic music – the Beatles' 'Good Day Sunshine' ... being [one of the] examples."
  4. ^ Lewis & Spignesi 2009: "'Good Day Sunshine' is a British music hall toe-tapper."