Love Sunshine

Soundtrack to a scorcher: my favourite sunshine songs
Greetings sunny pop-pickers, in an effort to encourage the sun this summer here's the first installment on the heliotastic hymns that light up the canon of pop. Sunshine Superman by Donovan (1966)

Sunshine came softly through my a-window today
Could've tripped out easy a-but I've a-changed my ways.

It surely captures something of the unique feeling of sunshine, and how it can make magical an ordinary day. The jangling sitar opening, and psychedelic lyrics open a sunny window onto a moment in popular cultural history. By equating hedonistic sun-worship with psychedelic head-expansion, it reminds us that, even pallid, puny Scottish folksters could feel the rays emanating from California. The first brand of LSD was called 'Sunshine' (1967), and all those flipped out hippies soaking up the sun and giving out the love in Golden Gate park were simply Letting the Sunshine In.

Turn on, tan-in, flop out.