"Paper Sun" is a song by British rock band

Traffic Traffic is the movement of vehicles and pedestrians along land routes. Traffic laws govern and regulate traffic, while rules of the road include traffic laws and informal rules that may have developed over time to facilitate the orderly an ...

, and was released as their debut single on 26 May 1967. It was a number 5 hit in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

,Traffic in the UK Charts
, The Official Charts. Retrieved 9 August 2011. number 4 in Canada. An edited version peaked at number 70 on the ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', is an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' Top 100 chart in the United States. This version was also released on U.S. copies of the band's debut album, ''

Mr. Fantasy ''Mr. Fantasy'' is the debut album by England, English rock band Traffic (band), Traffic, released in December 1967. The recording included group members Jim Capaldi, Steve Winwood, Chris Wood (rock musician), Chris Wood, and Dave Mason; Mason t ...

'' (early U.S. copies of the album had the alternate title ''Heaven Is in Your Mind''). CD inlay notes for the Jim Capaldi tribute concert stated: ‘A plan was hatched for (Steve) Winwood to leave the Spencer Davis Group the following year (1967). (Jim) Capaldi even went on tour with them in order to start writing with his new friend and collaborator. Paper Sun thus evolved from a newspaper headline Jim read in a boarding house in Newcastle. “I was half asleep, lying there, writing this lyric in my head at about 3:30 in the morning. I woke up Steve with this idea and then we went into the living room where there was a little upright piano and finished the song,” said Jim.’Pierre Perrone, writing on "Dear Mr Fantasy: A Celebration for Jim Capaldi" (Eagle Records ER 20118-2; 2007) The song was recorded at a nightly session, spanning between 23 and 24 April 1967. It was held at

Olympic Studios Olympic Studios was a British independent recording studio based on Church Road, Barnes, Church Road, Barnes, London, Barnes, London. It is best known for its recordings of many artists throughout the late 1960s to the first decade of the 21st ...

Barnes, London Barnes () is a district in South West London, England, part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It takes up the extreme north-east of the borough, and as such is the closest part of the borough to central London. It is centred west ...

and produced by

Jimmy Miller Jimmy Miller (March 23, 1942 – October 22, 1994) was an American record producer and musician. While he produced albums for dozens of different bands and artists, he is known primarily for his work with several key musical acts of the 1960s ...

. The song is famous for its

sitar The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form in 19th-century India. Khusrau K ...

riff, played by

Dave Mason David Thomas Mason (born 10 May 1946) is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist from Worcester, who came to prominence in 1967 as a founding member of the rock band Traffic. While with Traffic, he wrote and sang lead vocals on two of the b ...

, and its vocals by composer

Steve Winwood Stephen Lawrence Winwood (born 12 May 1948) is an English musician and songwriter whose genres include blue-eyed soul, rhythm and blues, blues rock, and pop rock. Though primarily a guitarist, keyboard player, and vocalist prominent for his dis ...

. A black-and-white promotional film for the song was shot at the

Royal Museum for Central Africa The Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) (; ; ), communicating under the name AfricaMuseum since 2018, is an ethnography and natural history museum situated in Tervuren in Flemish Brabant, Belgium, just outside Brussels. It was originally b ...

(AfricaMuseum) in Tervuren, Belgium. The single's

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

, "Giving to You", features an opening vocal section with lyrics sung by Winwood. The B-side version was later released as a bonus track on a CD reissue of ''Mr. Fantasy''. The song was later issued in a modified version (4:20) on ''Mr. Fantasy''. The album version begins and ends with overdubbed spoken parts. The song had its first UK album appearance on the 1969 compilation, '' Best of Traffic''. It appeared on the soundtrack of the 2010 British film ''

Made in Dagenham ''Made in Dagenham'' is a 2010 British comedy-drama film directed by Nigel Cole, written by William Ivory, and starring Sally Hawkins, Bob Hoskins, Miranda Richardson, Geraldine James, Rosamund Pike, Andrea Riseborough, Jaime Winstone, ...

''.

References

External links

*.
Entry at discogs.com
1967 songs 1967 debut singles Traffic (band) songs Songs written by Steve Winwood Songs written by Jim Capaldi Song recordings produced by Jimmy Miller Island Records singles {{1960s-rock-song-stub