It was written by Roger Cook, Roger Greenaway, John Goodison and Tony Hiller and was released as a single only in New Zealand in August 1970, charting for one week at number 18 on the New Zealand Listener Pop-O-Meter chart.
In January 1971, British singer Cliff Richard released his own version of the song as a non-album single.
[3] Richard recorded "Sunny Honey Girl" in November 1970 at EMI Studios (later renamed Abbey Road) and was arranged by and features the orchestra of the Shadows drummer Brian Bennett.
The first, "Don't Move Away", was written by Valerie Avon and Harold Spiro and is a duet with Olivia Newton-John.
[4] Reviewing for Disc and Music Echo, David Hughes described "Sunny Honey Girl" as "undoubtedly Cliff's most blatantly commercial song for months" and that "it has all the ingredients for instant success – a catch tune, a good infectious beat, a title that's sung often enough to get inside your brain and a good arrangement by ex-Shadow Brian Bennett".