Sunday, July 3, 2011

Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head....top ten rain songs

 
 Call it cats and dogs or condensation...a deluge or a drizzle...a monsoon or a mist...sprinkles or showers... rain drops are falling! It's that liquid precipitation that falls on us all from time to time. It's the stuff that can make the flowers grow and the traffic slow.

Rain is also the topic of many a song. This blog would be virtually endless if we were to list every great rain song. Therefore I had to whittle it down to a Top Ten list based on how well each has done on the various charts
I'll say it again: If you don't see your favorite rain song, be sure to leave a comment. Who knows, your submission could be the next entry!

Let's start at the bottom (but certainly not least) and work our way up to the #1 spot.
10. Singin' In The Rain-Classic! What's else can you think of to sing in the rain but this one? Gene Kelly sang and danced this in the 1952 film Singin' In The Rain ,but it was originally published in 1929! Many years later it reached the top spot. 

9. Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain-Originally written in 1945 by Fred Rose and released by Roy Acuff, it was released 30 years later in 1975 by Willie Nelson on his concept album Red Headed Stranger. It was Nelson's first #1 country hit as a singer, and reached #21 on the pop charts. 
8. Kentucky Rain-In 1969 Elvis Presley began recording again in Memphis. The results: some of the greatest songs he ever recorded. "Kentucky Rain" is no exception. In 1970 it reached #16 in the US and #3 on the US Easy Listening chart.

7. Crying In The Rain-A real gem written in a rare collaboration by Carole King and Howard Greenfield. In 1962 the Everly Brothers reached #6 in both the US and UK with this. Tammy Wynette's version was a Top 20 country hit. 

6. I Wish It Would Rain-David Ruffin sang the soulful lead on this Temptations song. It reached #4 in the US and #1 on the US R&B chart in 1967.

5. Rhythm Of The Rain-In 1962 the Cascades recorded this classic. It features John Gummoe (who wrote the song during a thunderstorm) on lead vocals.. In 1963 it reached #3 in the US and #5 in the UK and sold over one million copies. It's also been played on the radio over six million times!

4. Raindrops-The intro of this song sounds much like the previous song, but don't be fooled! This one (sung by soul singer Dee Clark) has the street cred of having come out in 1961, a year before "Rhythm Of The Rain". It was written by Clark with guitarist Phil Upchurch . It reached #2 in the US and #3 (US R&B).

3. Who'll Stop The Rain-Ah, Creedence Clearwater Revival. (Always liked that name!) It was either this or "Have You Ever Seen The Rain?" Tough choice. Both were written by John Fogerty; both are cool songs. But I just had to go with this one. "Who'll Stop The Rain" was a US #2 hit in 1970. In 2004 Rolling Stone ranked it #188 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

2. Just Walkin' In The Rain-A big hit for the inimitable Johnnie Ray in 1956.  It was originally recorded by the Prisonaires in 1953. It was written by Johnny Bragg and Robert Riley. Both were inmates at the Tennessee State Prison. Johnny wrote the majority of the song but could not read or write. Robert wrote down the lyrics in exchange for songwriting credit. The rest is history. How cool is that?

1. Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head- It was a US #1 hit for four weeks. It won composers Burt Bacharach and Hal David Oscars for Best Original Song for 1969 (as the theme for Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid.) It sold over one million copies (a first for Bacharach and David and the third to do so for singer B.J. Thomas.) And Thomas's version was ranked #12 on Billboard's Greatest Songs Of All Time. And it rocks. Need I say more?

What a shame! So many great rain songs are getting left out. Hopefully you will pick up on this and mention your favorite.For the momonet just listen to the top listed song that will make you take a walk in the rain..


source:www..rock-the-jukebox.com & youtube

No comments:

Post a Comment