“All For the Love of Sunshine”
Hank Williams Jr. with the Mike Curb Congregation
Written by Mike Curb, Harley Hatcher, and Lalo Schifrin
Billboard
#1 (2 weeks)
September 5 – September 12, 1970
Hank Jr. as we know him is coming, but he ain’t here yet.
The second generation country superstar spent a good chunk of his early career mimicking his father’s voice and appearance, both in concert and on record. He was reasonably successful doing so, earning a handful of top ten hits throughout the sixties.
In the new decade, he was still finding his voice artistically. “All For the Love of Sunshine” is outright bizarre if you think about it within the context of Hank Jr.’s signature work, but on its own, it’s fine. It has some pleasant country instrumentation and Hank Jr. sings with conviction.
It’s the Mike Curb Congregation that’s getting in the way here, making what could’ve been a solid straight ahead country record into something way too old fashioned for the young singer at the mic. He’s got one more chart topper in this vein coming in 1972.
“All For the Love of Sunshine” gets a B-.
Every No. 1 Single of the Seventies
Previous: Sonny James, “Don’t Keep Me Hangin’ On” |
Next: Ray Price, “For the Good Times”
I agree with the “B”. Good song and decent performance. Somehow it just feels like it should be sung by someone else though? Who? Maybe Roy Clark, Even George Jones or Charly Pride.
Early 70s Hank Jr. is quite a discovery for people who only know him as the rowdy rocker of 80s. This definitely isn’t “him”, but it’s still pleasant enough. I do like Eleven Roses, which I’m assuming is the next chart topper for him. Darrell McCall wrote Eleven Roses and I think he sings it even better than Junior.
And not that this matters, but I think this song was used in the 1970 World War II film KELLY’S HEROES, which starred Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, and Don Rickles (also known as The Man Who Never Saw An Insult That He Couldn’t Use [LOL]).
Hank Jr. was emerging from the shadows of his famous father as early as 1966 when “Standing In The Shadows” hit #2 on Cash Box / #3 on Record World. Before this song, Hank had already had three songs reach #1 on the Record World and/or Cash Box country charts along with a bunch of top 15 hits that were not at all clones of Hank Senior’s style, although not what we would come to associate with Junior’s late 1970s style.
It seems a shame that this was the first of his songs to top Billboard’s country chart as there were a bunch of better recordings before this that showed Junior to have emerged as a mainstream country artist, albeit one who had more of a blues influence than most mainstream country artists. Personally, I loved most of the post 1966 albums and singles. I would give this song a C+ but there were many singles that preceded that I regard as B+ to A- material, with his albums containing many good performances.
Bonus Beats:
Here’s the version of “All for the Love of Sunshine” that Steve Holy recorded for his 2006 album Brand New Girlfriend, which will factor into the 2000s column eventually. Steve’s version was produced by Mike Curb and has a children’s choir, but somehow I think it works better. Here it is:
https://youtu.be/yVJKbFOsS9Y
However, the best version of “All for the Love of Sunshine” doesn’t come from a country singer, but from the legendary soul singer Solomon Burke, someone who I share a birthday with, in 1971. His extremely soulful, electric sitar-laced version also features the Mike Curb Congregation, and they fit in so much better here than on Hank Jr’s version. Here’s that version, which is absolutely worth a listen:
https://youtu.be/YucaAW7kPE0
…pity no one thought of percy sledge to save that latter day extension of the “tammy” (tv series) theme.
Removal of the Curb choirs would improve all three versions. I think the best version is actually Hank Jr.’s appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, which features just Hank without any choral accompaniment
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=TVBWDFgPkMQ
I know nothing about Talmadge Wells, but he also has a nice recording of the song minus choral accompaniment
I actually really enjoyed this! I love the combination of strings, lovely steel guitar, and the prominent background vocals from the Mike Curb Congregation. The melody is also very pretty, and I love the beautiful imagery that some of the lyrics put in my head. I haven’t really explored this chapter of Hank Jr.’s career yet, so it’s very fascinating to me to be hearing him sing this kind of material (not to mention, seeing him clean shaven and without a hat). Definitely another one that’s going on my playlist!
I am largely unfamiliar with this era of Hank Jr.’s music. I get drips and drabs through occasional plays on Sirius XM’s “Willie’s Roadhouse.” It must count for something that there are so many covers of this song.
Like Jamie, I enjoyed how pretty the song sounds. Dense harmony vocals, or prominent background singers, will almost never count against a performance in my world.
This sound, however, does sound totally transitional for Hank Jr. He has not fully left something behind nor has he fully embraced his potential.
I really love hearing new music and I truly enjoy and thrill at reading how this community reacts to it or remembers it.