“The Sound of Sunshine”

In August 2009, Michael Franti spent more than a week in a Los Angeles hospital with a ruptured appendix that nearly cost him his life. Every day he pulled back the window curtain to see if the sun was shining, and that daily hope became the idea for this song. He wrote much of the album on an acoustic guitar in his hospital bed, and said he wanted to bottle that feeling for people. Released in 2010 by Michael Franti & Spearhead, with extra production by Sly & Robbie, the title song went to No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult Alternative chart and to No. 3 in Italy, and it turned up in Soul Surfer and other films.