Hi,

I believe Marvin Taylor should get credit for authorship of "You Are My Sunshine" or that it should be declared a PD song.

Here's why. If I publish a version of the Pine Ridge Boys song it predated the copyright and is based on a version that was recorded before the copyright.

Does anyone agree?

How can Jimmie Davis still hold a copyright to a song that you can prove was recorded by a previous artist. Taylor had nothing to do with Paul Rice who probably got the song indirectly from Taylor.

Bob Atcher and Bonnie Blue Eyes recorded the song for Columbia Records on Jan 17, 1940. Art Slatherley Columbia's A & R man had got a copy of it from Marvin Taylor in North Carolina a singer with the Pine Ridge Boys.

So you've even got Art Slatherley attributing the song to Taylor before the song was copyrighted.

What do you think?

Richie