Daniel Boone | Beautiful Sunday (1972)
"Beautiful Sunday" is a song written by Daniel Boone and Rod McQueen (real name David Balfe) and performed by Boone.
1972-02-07 19:00:00 - Music Video
It appeared on his 1972 album Beautiful Sunday and was produced by Larry Page and arranged by Boone.
It has been described as the biggest international hit in the British bubblegum pop genre. Robin Carmody of Freaky Trigger praised the song for its "timelessly, wonderfully obvious chord sequence" and euphoric tone, "without any hint that driving to and from your day's pleasure and relaxation might even contain anything sexual, let alone anything depressing, tedious and ugly."
He named it the greatest British bubblegum pop song, deeming it "a neo-folk song structure of almost religious, redemptive simplicity / sublimity. One of the greatest singles of the 70s, if not ever."
"Beautiful Sunday" was released by Penny Farthing Records, but by Mercury Records in the US, in 1972.
It peaked at No. 15 on Billboard Hot 100 on 16–23 September 1972 and at No. 1 on WCFL on 21 October 1972. The song also made the charts in New Zealand (gold record), France, Japan, South Africa, Mexico, and Germany, where it held the No. 1 position from May 1972 to late June 1972.
The song peaked at No. 21 in the United Kingdom on its original release in 1972, and reached No. 53 when re-released in 1974.
Boone re-released the song in Japan in 1976; it topped the Oricon Singles Chart from 22 March to 28 June. "Beautiful Sunday" is still the best selling single by a foreign artist in Japan.