You Are My Sunshine was first recorded in 1939 and popularised in 1940 by Jimmie Davis and Charles Mitchell, becoming a classic American folk and country standard. Written as a simple, repetitive love song, it has been covered by countless artists and sung in schools, churches and choirs for generations. Choir arrangements highlight its lullaby quality, which helped it spread on TikTok as a sound for emotional edits, tributes and nostalgic slideshows where the familiar chorus instantly signals affection, innocence and loss without needing any explanation from the creator.