Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head

Gold record presented to backup singer Linda November for her work on "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head"

"Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" is a song written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach for the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.^[2] It won an Academy Award for Best Original Song.^[2] David and Bacharach also won Best Original Score. The song was recorded by B. J. Thomas in seven takes, after Bacharach expressed dissatisfaction with the first six. In the film version of the song, Thomas had been recovering from laryngitis, which made his voice sound hoarser than in the 7-inch release. The film version featured a separate vaudeville-style instrumental break in double time while Paul Newman performed bicycle stunts.

The single by B. J. Thomas reached number 1 on charts in the United States, Canada, Norway and reached number 38 in the UK Singles Chart.^[2] It topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks in January 1970 and was also the first American number-one hit of the 1970s. The song also spent seven weeks atop the Billboard adult contemporary chart.^[3] Billboard ranked it as the No. 4 song of 1970.^[4] According to Billboard magazine, Thomas' single had sold over 2 million copies by March 14, 1970, with eight-track and cassette versions also climbing the charts.^[5]

History

Ray Stevens was first offered the opportunity to record it for the film, but turned it down. He chose instead to record the song "Sunday Morning Coming Down", written by Kris Kristofferson. Bob Dylan is supposed to have been approached for the song, but he, too, reportedly declined.^[6] The trumpet solos in the song are performed by Chuck Findlay.^[7]

In 2004, it finished at number 23 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema. In 2008, the single was ranked 85th on Billboard's Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs^[8] and placed 95th in the 55th Anniversary edition of the All-Time Hot 100 list in 2013.^[9] Billboard Magazine also ranked the song 15th on its Top 50 Movie Songs of All Time list in 2014.^[10]

On December 3, 2013, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences announced that the single would be inducted into the 2014 Grammy Hall Of Fame.^[12]

"Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" was used in the film Spy Hard, which parodied the scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Police Constable Pan-Am sings the opening lines at the end of his appearance in Series 2, Episode 4 of Monty Python's Flying Circus. It is on the soundtracks to Forrest Gump and Spider-Man 2, in the latter accentuating Peter Parker's blissful mood after abandoning his Spider-Man identity and its responsibilities. It was used in the Kevin Smith film Clerks II. The first episode of the second season of the popular medical drama Grey's Anatomy is named after the song. It is also used in The Simpsons, episode 16 of the fourth season, called Duffless, at the end of the episode, while credits are presented. It was also used in a season 1 episode of Arrested Development entitled "Altar Egos". It was also used in the 2003 film "The In-Laws" starring Michael Douglas and Albert Brooks, which was a remake of the 1979 Peter Falk / Alan Arkin film.

Chart performance

Covers

The song has been covered numerous times. From January 24, 1970 to March 13 it was a number-one hit (for seven weeks) in Australia on the Go-Set National Top 40 for local pop singer, Johnny Farnham.^[15][19] In 1970, it was also covered by Dionne Warwick on her album I'll Never Fall In Love Again, by Engelbert Humperdinck on his album We Made It Happen, Johnny Mathis on his album Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head, Perry Como on his album It's Impossible, The Four Tops on their album Changing Times, Andy Williams on his album, Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head, and The Free Design on their album Stars/Time/Bubbles/Love. Portuguese-born television and radio presenter Pedro Biker released a Danish version re-entitled "Regndråber Drypper I Mit Hår" in 1970.^[20]

It has been covered in French by French singer Sacha Distel, whose version Toute La Pluie Tombe Sur Moi was a number 10 hit in the UK Singles Chart,^[2] and number 13 in Ireland, as well as number 10 in France. Distel also recorded a version with the original English lyrics, and another in Italian, Gocce Di Pioggia Su Di Me. Bobbie Gentry's version reached number 40 in the UK chart.^[2] Paul Mauriat recorded it with his Grand Orchestra it 1973. It was the only known cover in the USSR.

The Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers cover version is credited with adding greater nuance to the song, the Financial Times citing their recording as transforming the song from carefree optimism to "an exhortation to keep going in the face of tragedy" and noting that Bradfield's voice "added grit to the facile lyric".^[21] The group often spent their downtime on the tour bus watching the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and incorporated the song into live sets. After the disappearance of lyricist Richey Edwards, the band decided to continue rather than split up. Having booked studio time in France to record their fourth album, Everything Must Go, they were invited to record for the War Child album The Help Album. The project required all songs to be recorded in one day.^[22] While band biographer Simon Price has described the recording and release of the record as a "coded message" that the band still existed,^[23] Bradfield recalls the events differently: "...us putting it out wasn't planned as us saying 'We're OK, guys!', but the deadline was the next day after we'd arrived in this place, for some kind of new beginning."^[22] The band's recorded version of the song contains the first recorded instance of drummer Sean Moore performing on trumpet,^[23] and also appears on their 2003 B-sides and rarities compilation album Lipstick Traces (A Secret History of Manic Street Preachers). The Manics further reference the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with the B-side "Sepia".^[24]

The Barry Sisters covered the song in a Yiddish version ("Trop'ns Fin Regen Oif Mein Kop") on their 1973 album Our Way.^[25][26]

Lisa Miskovsky covered the song in the extended version of her self-titled (2004) album.^[27]

See also

• List of number-one singles in Australia during the 1970s
• List of RPM number-one singles of 1970
• List of number-one hits in Norway
• List of number-one adult contemporary singles of 1969 (U.S.)
• List of number-one adult contemporary singles of 1970 (U.S.)
• List of Hot 100 number-one singles of 1970 (U.S.)

References