I Can See Clearly Now



“I Can See Clearly Now” is a song written, composed, and originally recorded by Johnny Nash. It was a single from the album of the same name and achieved success in the United States and the United Kingdom when it was released in 1972, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was covered by many artists throughout the years, including a 1993 hit version by Jimmy Cliff, who re-recorded it for the motion picture soundtrack of Cool Runnings, where it reached the top 20 at No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Johnny Nash version
After Nash wrote and composed the original version, he recorded it in London with members of the Fabulous Five Inc., and produced it himself. Its arrangements and style are both heavily laced with reggae influences. Nash had cooperated with Bob Marley in the past, and his approach drew strongly from Marley's reggae style.

Track listings

 * 7" single
 * 1) "I Can See Clearly Now" – 2:44
 * 2) "How Good It Is" – 2:38


 * 7" single
 * 1) "I Can See Clearly Now" – 2:44
 * 2) "Cupid" – 3:30

Chart performance
After making modest chart advances for a month, the RIAA-certified gold single unexpectedly took only two weeks to vault from No. 20 to No. 5 to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on November 4, 1972, remaining atop this chart for four weeks, and also spent the same four weeks atop the adult contemporary chart.

Jimmy Cliff version
Reggae singer Jimmy Cliff recorded a cover of the song for the 1993 movie Cool Runnings. It was released as a single in 1994, reaching No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was Cliff's first single to make the Hot 100 in 25 years, and is his highest-charting single in the United States.

Other covers
The song also appears in various other films, such as Grosse Pointe Blank, The Break-up, Thelma & Louise, Antz, Deep Blue Sea, Envy, Hitch, Igor, Shrek 2's "Far Far Away Idol," "Viktor Vogel – Commercial Man," and Jennifer's Body, as well in a 2009 advertisement for Lipton in the Middle East and Russia. It is also briefly sung by Cheech in the movie Up in Smoke.

It has also been covered by these artists:


 * Alex E
 * Anne Murray (1999 What A Wonderful World and 2001 reissue of There's a Hippo in My Tub)
 * Aswad
 * Beat Crusaders
 * Singers of musical Belles belles belles covered the Claude François' song
 * Bobby Goldsboro
 * Claude François as "Toi et le soleil," a French version
 * Dream Sequence in 1999, as "Clearly," an uptempo eurodance remix
 * Dobie Gray
 * Donny Osmond
 * Doyle Bramhall
 * Dusty Springfield (recording unissued and subsequently lost or destroyed)
 * Eagle-Eye Cherry for the romantic comedy Over Her Dead Body
 * Elsa as "Éternité," another French version
 * Even in Blackouts on The Fall of the House of Even
 * Everlife
 * Funk, Inc. in 1973 on Hangin' Out
 * Geoff Moore and the Distance
 * Gladys Knight & the Pips in 1973 on Imagination
 * Holly Cole Trio
 * Horace Andy
 * Hothouse Flowers in 1990 on Home (this version was a #23 hit in the UK Singles Chart in August 1990)
 * James Last
 * Kaitlyn Maher
 * Ken Boothe
 * Kermit Ruffins
 * Lee Towers
 * Liza Minnelli
 * Lloyd Green
 * Lorie - cover of the French Toi et le Soleil Claude François version
 * Marisa Monte
 * Martin Kitcher (On the Best Of..)
 * Neil Finn in 1998 to raise money for The Fred Hollows Foundation. Finn's version also played in the movie Antz, where Z and Bala find Insectopia.
 * Petula Clark (1974 Come On Home)
 * Procol Harum in concert medleys
 * Ray Charles (highest charting R&B version #35 in 1978)
 * Richie Havens
 * Rick Danko
 * Francis Rossi on One Step at a Time (Deluxe Edition only)
 * Susan Cadogan
 * Screeching Weasel on My Brain Hurts and the soundtrack of Jennifer's Body
 * Simone Dinnerstein & Tift Merritt on their 2013 album, Night
 * Sonny and Cher
 * Soul Asylum on After the Flood: Live from the Grand Forks Prom, June 28, 1997
 * Susie McEntire
 * The Mamas & the Papas
 * The Three Blind Mice during "Far Far Away Idol" in Shrek 2
 * Toots & the Maytals
 * Willie Nelson

R&B guitarist Jonathan Butler recorded a cover from his 2010 album So Strong.

In November 2002, the song was featured prominently in "The Freak," an episode of the NBC police drama television series Boomtown.

In November 2016, a cover version of the song by the Hothouse Flowers was featured in the premiere episode of British Motoring show, The Grand Tour, causing the song to reach the number 1 position on the iTunes's Top 40 UK Rock Song chart in late 2016.