Doug Spivey and Marvin Taylor, Atlanta close-harmony duo
Doug Spivey and Marvin Taylor were an old-time close-harmony duo out of the Atlanta area — two guitars and yodels, the format that filled Bluebird’s Southern field sessions in the late 1930s. They cut “You Are My Sunshine” in Atlanta on 22 August 1939 as Victor matrix BS-041254, and Bluebird released it on 6 October 1939 backed with “Farther Along.” The label carried no songwriter credit whatsoever. Spivey later told researchers a version of the song’s origin closely matching Paul Rice’s — both traced the idea to a young woman in South Carolina.