Gale Garnett – We'll Sing In The Sunshine lyrics

It is so happy and care-free. I agree that it is about sharing happiness together without commitment. But in my life the lyrics, "I'll kiss you every night" could not apply. I might not be able to leave such a relationship and be happy.

Rather it is like the dating relationship I had with a girl for over a year, knowing that she was waiting for her true love to return. We went to dances, We spent time with other couples, with family, and rode snowmobiles across her ranch. But it never went beyond hand-holding and friendly hugs. We both knew our future happiness would be with someone else. Less commitment, less regret. That's what I feel in the song, not necessarily what's written in the lyrics.

"I will never love You.
The cost of love's too dear."

So we never kissed. We never spent the nights together. We gave what we could and enjoyed the time with no regrets. Should we meet in the future we would feel comfortable - smiling, introducing each other to our real loves, and sharing pictures of our children and grandchildren.

What it means to me: I was 17years old when I first heard this song and 3 years into an abusive, controlling relationship that I could not escape! "We'll Sing In the Sunshine" blessed me with an image of the fun, happiness, and freedom that I longed for. I finally did escape, but this song is still very special to me and brings those feelings to me, now, even after all these years.

I understand the words very well, and I think they mean a lot. The cost of Love is too dear. If you don't love you can't be hurt. I've been there and it's very hurtful. I'm an older lady now, and I will never love again. The cost is too dear.

"I will never love You.
The cost of love's too dear.
But though I'll never love you.
I'll stay with you one year".

For the past 50+ years those lyrics have mystified me.
First of all, those are words a guy does not want to hear from a girl he is living with. It is as if she is doing him a big favor.
Why would she make what amounts to a business arrangement/deal, and stay with a guy she doesn't love, for one year? Why a year? Now I realize the exact amount of time is not significant, however, one year does rhyme quite nicely with "dear". The singer is very much a Daddy's girl. The father has had a heavy influence on his daughter, So much so, that she may be incapable of ever fully loving another man after her father. I knew the father said these words:

"Hey, don't you love you any man.
Just take want they may give you.
And give but what you can".

I was not aware, until I read carefully the next stanza, these are also his words:

"And you can sing in the sunshine.
You'll laugh everyday.
You'll sing in the sunshine.
Then be on your way".

The "Daddy's" imprint on her is indelible, she seems incapable of a deep, mature, committed love relationship with another man. Her father tells her to find a man to take care of her, but whatever you do, do not become permanently attached to him. Obviously, the father has been wounded by love (his wife, her mother?) and he is instilling that wound/hurt onto his daughter. And he may also want her to believe that no "other" man can surpass his "love" for his daughter. She is being in a sense held hostage by her father's parental mind control. His inability to let go of her, let her grow up and live her own life. So, for the rest of her life, she may "sing and laugh in the sunshine", but it will no doubt be a life of continued loneliness and possible bleakness and darkness. And now I "know the rest of the story".

Someone with a terminal illness will make the most of each day they have. A lesson for all.
My sister she once told me, the meaning was very clear.
Everyone needs to understand, they should do just what they hear.
And you can sing in the sunshine, you can laugh every day.