Song of the Day 3/29: Joseph Arthur, “In the Sun”

Singer-songwriter Joseph Arthur once remarked that there’s something about this song that makes people want to record it for charity. Arthur wrote it in 1995, about a friend who died of cancer, shortly before Peter Gabriel discovered Arthur and signed him to his record company. Gabriel recorded it the next year for a Princess Diana tribute album. Arthur didn’t record it himself until 2000, when it was released on his second LP, “Come to Where I’m From.”

The song is best-known through a cover that Michael Stipe of R.E.M. and Chris Martin of Coldplay recorded in 2005 for a Hurricane Katrina relief CD. That version has been used to good effect on TV shows like “Scrubs” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” They also performed it live on “Austin City Limits.”

Gabriel’s version muffles the emotion of the lyrics under heavy electronic production, which to my ear doesn’t do the song justice.