Although having become one of the most popular Marley songs, "Sun Is Shining" used to be a fairly unknown and seldom-performed number during Marley's lifetime. Up to date, only two live performances are documented; however, both took place under special circumstances. On 16 June 1978, Marley performed at The Music Inn in
Lenox, Massachusetts, a concert having been rescheduled twice since 1976, and played an over 2-hour set. "Sun Is Shining" was the opening song, reportedly included spontaneously as it stopped to rain. On 23 July 1978, Marley performed an outdoor concert at the
Santa Barbara Bowl that included "Sun Is Shining" as opening song; just before the song, Marley introduced the performance by referring to
Haile Selassie's birthday on the same day.
The song was remixed in 1999 by Danish
house music producer
Funkstar De Luxe. It was released on the
Kontor Records-sub label Club Tools, credited to Bob Marley vs. Funkstar De Luxe. The producer was the first to receive clearance from the Marley estate to release official remixes of the late singer's music (although bootleg mixes of Marley tunes have circulated in the club world for years).
The song reached number one in Iceland and on the
American and
Canadian dance charts, and it debuted at number three on the
UK Singles Chart—Marley's highest-charting single in that country. It also became a top-10 hit in Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Norway and Switzerland.