Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head (Song)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David for the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The uplifting lyrics describe somebody who overcomes his troubles and worries by realizing that "it won't be long till happiness steps up to greet me."

The single by B. J. Thomas reached No. 1 on charts in the United States, Canada and Norway, and reached No. 38 on the UK Singles Chart. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks in January 1970 and was also the first American No. 1 hit of the 1970s. The song also spent seven weeks atop the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. Billboard ranked it as the No. 4 song of 1970. According to Billboard magazine, it had sold over 2 million copies by March 14, 1970, with eight-track and cassette versions also climbing the charts. It won an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Bacharach also won Best Original Score.

Composition and recording

Bacharach and David composed the song for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Director George Roy Hill wanted something for a particular scene involving a romantic bike ride. Ray Stevens was first offered the opportunity to record it for the film, but turned it down. Bob Dylan is supposed to have been approached for the song, but he reportedly declined too. Carol Kaye played electric bass on the song.

B. J. Thomas accepted the offer to record the song, and he recorded the version heard in the film in seven takes, after Bacharach expressed dissatisfaction with the first six. Thomas had been recovering from laryngitis, which made his voice sound huskier. The film version featured a separate vaudeville-style instrumental break in double time while Paul Newman performed bicycle stunts. Two weeks later Thomas re-recorded the song at A & R Studio in New York City for its single release.

Reception

Some felt the song was the wrong tone for a western film like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but Hill insisted on its inclusion. Robert Redford, one of the stars of the film, was among those who disapproved of using the song, though he later acknowledged he was wrong:

When the film was released, I was highly critical: How did the song fit with the film? There was no rain. At the time, it seemed like a dumb idea. How wrong I was, as it turned out to be a giant hit.

Legacy

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 and placed 95th in the 55th Anniversary edition of the All-Time Hot 100 list in 2013. Billboard Magazine also ranked the song 15th on its Top 50 Movie Songs of All Time list in 2014.

The song, initially when it came out, I believe it was October of 69, the movie didn't come out until December, it did get some bad reviews. It was a very unique and different sounding song, Bacharach and David never had any qualms about trying to do anything different, or push the envelope so to speak. So nowadays, it sounds pretty tame, but back then, radio resisted it to some degree. But, when the movie came out it hit hugely and sold about 200,000 to 300,000 records a day [and continued selling] for about three years.

— B.J. Thomas, Interview, Pods o' Pop (August 22, 2011)

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.

Chart performance

Weekly singles charts

• B.J. Thomas "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" on The Ed Sullivan Show

Year-end charts

• B. J. Thomas sings "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" on Larry's Country Diner.

All-time charts

• Ray Stevens & B.J. Thomas - "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" (Live on CabaRay Nashville)

Certifications and sales

In popular culture

• It was mentioned in a candidate's name in the Monty Python's Flying Circus Election Night Special sketch in the "It's a Living" episode in 1970.
• The song is used in the background of a montage in Spider-Man 2, where Peter Parker decides to opt out of being a superhero after he loses his powers.

• The song was used in the outro sequence of The Simpsons in episode 16 of season 4, "Duffless", as a reference to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969).
• The song is used extensively throughout Hideo Kojima's 2025 video game Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, both as non-diegetic background music in scenes and being sung by characters in-universe.
• The song (the Bobbie Gentry version specifically) plays during Final Destination Bloodlines during the premonition scene.
• Song also featured in Clerks 2

• Spy Hard film

Cover versions

• In 1970, the song was covered by Roy Ayers, with his group the Roy Ayers Ubiquity, on their album Ubiquity, as the second track.

• Peggy Lee on her album Bridge Over Troubled Water, released by Capitol Records.

• Barbara Mason, whose cover reached U.S. Bubbling Under number 12 and R&B number 38.

• John Farnham, whose version was the number-one hit (for seven weeks) in Australia on the Go-Set National Top 40 from January 24 to March 13.

• Bobbie Gentry, from her album Fancy, which reached number 40 in the UK chart.

• Robert Goulet on his album Robert Goulet Sings Today's Greatest Hits.

• Perry Como on his album It's Impossible.

• Brazilian singer Wilson Simonal on his album Mexico '70.

• Sacha Distel, in French as "Toute la pluie tombe sur moi" (All the rain falls on me), while his English-language version was a number 10 hit in the UK Singles Chart, and number 13 in Ireland; the French version reaching number 10 in his home country.

• Distel also recorded a version in Italian, "Gocce di pioggia su di me" (Raindrops on me) and in english.

• The same Italian translation was performed by Patty Pravo on the 1970 album of the same name (RCA Italiana- LP8S 21102).

• Portuguese-born television and radio presenter Pedro Biker released a Danish version re-entitled "Regndråber Drypper I Mit Hår".

• Swedish singer Siw Malmkvist in Swedish as "Regnet, det bara öser ner" (The rain just pours down). It peaked at #5 in the Swedish best selling chart "Kvällstoppen".

• Dionne Warwick, for the album I'll Never Fall in Love Again.

• In 1973, the Barry Sisters covered the song in a Yiddish version ("Trop'ns Fin Regen Oif Mein Kop") on their album Our Way.

• The 1995 cover version by Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers 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 singer James Dean Bradfield's voice "added grit to the facile lyric". 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 (1996), they were invited to record for the War Child charity album The Help Album (1995). The project required all songs to be recorded in one day. While band biographer Simon Price has described the recording and release of the record as a "coded message" that the band still existed, 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." The band's recorded version of the song contains the first recorded instance of drummer Sean Moore performing on trumpet, 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".
• in 1998, Ben Folds Five took part in Bacharach's 'One Amazing Night' tribute concert and covered the song.

• Lisa Miskovsky covered the song in the extended version of her self-titled (2004) album.

• Mel Torme covered the song as the title track of his Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head 1969 studio album.

• Johnny Mathis covered the song on his album Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head.

• Bert Kaempfert

• Tom Jones with Burt Bacharach

• Barry Manilow

• Aoi Teshima

• Orchestra Of Sergio Rafael

• Ray Conniff

• 凌雲 (Rita Chao)

• TheDavidHasselhoff

• Joanna Wang 王若琳

• Engelbert Humperdinck

• Paul Mauriat and his Orchestra

• Levi Stubbs/Four Tops

• Dean Martin

• Instrumental cover by Dave Monk

The Living Room Sessions (B. J. Thomas Album)

The Living Room Sessions (2013) is B.J. Thomas' first "unplugged" album, celebrating fifty years in the recording industry and forty-seven years since his first gold record (a cover of the Hank Williams song, "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry"). The Living Room Sessions offers many of Thomas' most recognizable hits, the album was produced to instill the atmosphere of an intimate setting and includes duet performances from some of Thomas' favorite artists.

Background

B.J. Thomas

Billboard has ranked B.J. Thomas in the fifty most played artists in the last fifty years. Thomas became the 60th member of The Grand Ole Opry on August 7, 1981, his 39th birthday. Thomas was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Walkway of Stars in 1983.

"(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song" (1975), written by Larry Butler and Chips Moman, had the distinction of achieving No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Hot Country Songs charts. The song was also nominated Single of the Year, by the Academy of Country Music in 1975.

"Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" was featured in the 1969 film, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and won an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach, the song was a No. 1 hit for Thomas and earned him an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. Movie goers became re-acquainted with "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" when it was included in the film Spider-Man 2 (2004). The 1969 recording was inducted into the 2014 Grammy Hall of Fame.

Production

Two time Academy of Country Music Award nominee Kyle Lehning^: 79 produced The Living Room Sessions at Sound Stage Studio, Nashville, Tennessee, in 2012. Lehning and Thomas kept the pre-production details simple, realizing that the songs would naturally lend themselves to the acoustic format and trusted the musicians (Lehning and the Nashville "cats") to deliver the acoustic interpretations with minimal melodic adjustments to the songs.

Lehning and the Nashville "cats"

• Bryan Sutton – acoustic and gut string guitar, mandolin, banjo and dobro (has worked with Ricky Skaggs and the Dixie Chicks)
• John Willis – electric, acoustic, gut string guitar and dobro (has worked with Alan Jackson, Kenny Chesney, America)
• Viktor Krauss – upright bass (has worked with Peter Rowan, Jerry Douglas and Lyle Lovett) – Viktor Krauss is the brother of Alison Krauss.
• Steve Brewster – drums (has worked with Richard Marx and Dierks Bentley)

Release

• Pre-release of limited-edition, autographed versions of The Living Room Sessions went on sale on March 1, 2013.

Collaborations

Etta Britt ("New Looks from an Old Lover")Etta Britt was the first artist invited to sign with Wrinkled Records and released her debut album, Out of the Shadows in 2012. Behind the scenes of the music industry she has worked with artists such as Engelbert Humperdinck and REO Speedwagon. In 1978, she joined Dave & Sugar, who were nominated by the Country Music Association as Vocal Group of the Year, in 1978 and 1979. Etta Britt joins Thomas on his 1983, No. 1 Hot Country Songs hit, "New Looks from an Old Lover", co-written by Gloria Thomas.Vince Gill ("I Just Can't Help Believing")

Vince Gill first hit the Billboard Magazine charts as the front man for Pure Prairie League; the album Can't Hold Back (1979) hit No. 124 on the Billboard 200. Since that time, Gill has had a successful solo career with twenty Grammy and eleven Country Music Association awards, five of those for Male Vocalist of the Year and two for Entertainer of the Year (1993-1994). Gill is the only artist to win the Male Vocalist award for five consecutive years (1991-1995). Lyle Lovett ("Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head")Lyle Lovett is a multiple Grammy Award winner. His wins include Best Country Vocal Performance, Male (Lyle Lovett And His Large Band, 1989), Best Country Album (The Road to Ensenada, 1996), Best Country Performance by a Duo Or Group With Vocal ("Blues For Dixie", 1994) and Best Pop Vocal Collaboration ("Funny How Time Slips Away", 1994). Lovett is often noted for his ability to fold Big band and Swing genre music into contemporary hits. Richard Marx ("(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song")Richard Marx has been a regular on the Billboard Magazine charts since 1987, including Billboard Hot 100 number one Singles for: "Hold On to the Nights" (1988), "Right Here Waiting" (1989) and "Satisfied" (1989). In 2004, he won the Grammy Award, Song of the Year, for "Dance with My Father". Marx hit The Billboard 200 chart again in 2012, with his album Christmas Spirit. Keb' Mo' ("Most of All")Keb' Mo' is known as a post-modern bluesman, with three Grammy Awards for Best Contemporary Blues Album, Just Like You (1996), Slow Down (1998) and Keep It Simple (2004). In addition to vocals, Keb' Mo' plays guitar, harmonica, banjo, keyboards, steel drums and upright bass. He was the guitarist on several Papa John Creach albums, credited as Kevin Moore. Sara Niemietz ("Hooked on a Feeling")

Well, that's just incredible, isn't it? What's her name? Sara? Boy, she can really sing. [...] She is so cute, how old is she? Four ... and who taught her the words? ... she knows the words to all my songs? I don't know what to say.

— B.J. Thomas, March 29, 1997Sara Niemietz first met B.J. Thomas in 1997, when he helped the four-year-old Sara onto the stage during his performance of "Hooked on a Feeling" as she kept singing along in the front row. The following short duet was uploaded to Sara's YouTube channel. In the following fifteen year, Sara Niemietz made her name as a singer on Broadway, where she played a young Carol Burnett in Hollywood Arms. She landed the role of Patrice in the Los Angeles premiere of the Jason Robert Brown and Dan Elish musical, 13 and the supporting role of Polly in Akeelah and the Bee. She released four independent records and dozens of professionally mastered music-videos, worked with Emmy Award winner W. G. Snuffy Walden and made singing appearances on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Richard Marx', A Night Out With Friends on PBS. On June 10, 2012, Thomas and Sara Niemetz were reunited on stage. Isaac Slade ("I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry")Isaac Slade, the lead singer of The Fray, is a pianist, composer and the co-writer of "How to Save a Life" (2006), the seventh longest charting single on the Billboard Hot 100. Steve Tyrell ("Rock and Roll Lullaby") Steve Tyrell managed Thomas and was the original producer on "Rock and Roll Lullaby" (Scepter Records). As a single, the song was an Adult Contemporary No. 1 hit and reached No. 15 on Billboard Hot 100 in 1975.

Critical reception

Bob Paxman, "The Living Room Sessions by B.J. Thomas", Country Weekly, April 2, 2013The overall recording is solid, not your standard "Greatest Hits Revisited" package. And surprisingly, you don't miss the orchestrations that marked the earlier versions—the acoustic instruments more than capably fill in. Stephen Thomas Erlewine, "B.J. Thomas The Living Room Sessions review", AllMusic Despite the preponderance of guests -- Steve Tyrell, Etta Britt, and Sara Niemietz also appear, leaving just a third of the album to B.J. himself -- this amiable acoustic album is a showcase for Thomas, who hasn't seemed to lose much vocally, and remains an engaging, friendly presence on record. Edward Morris, "B.J. Thomas Bows Duet Album of Hits, The Living Room Sessions", CMT News, April 3, 2013The Living Room Sessions is free of gospel. But the album does offer a fair sampling of Thomas' pop and country mastery via hits he had between 1966 and 1983. He enlists Isaac Slade, of the rock band the Fray, to assist him on "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." Gill chimes in on "I Just Can't Help Believing." Keb' Mo' shares the mic on "Most of All."Marx blends voices with Thomas on "(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song." Jazz and pop singer Steve Tyrell joins in on "Rock and Roll Lullaby." Thomas tapped touring and studio singer Etta Britt for the sultry "New Looks From an Old Lover" and newcomer Sara Niemietz for "Hooked on a Feeling." Lovett is the vocally canny accomplice on "Raindrops."Thomas solos on the remaining four songs: "Don't Worry Baby," "Eyes of a New York Woman," "Whatever Happened to Old Fashioned Love" and "Everybody's Out of Town."Pam Stadel, "Digital Rodeo Music Reviews B.J. Thomas, Mark Cooke, The Mavericks", Digital RodeoThe Living Room Sessions is recorded in a simple way and very close to the original songs. The instrumentation is phenomenal and the production is outstanding. Vocals? All I can say is B.J. Thomas has aged like a bottle of fine wine—the older he gets, the better he gets—period. For those that remember him from the beginning to the new crowds today, get this album; It's available this week. You won't be sorry.

Track listing

B.J. Thomas The Living Room Sessions (2013)

Personnel

Primary artists

• Etta Britt
• Vince Gill
• Lyle Lovett
• Richard Marx
• Keb' Mo'
• Sara Niemietz
• Isaac Slade
• B.J. Thomas
• Steve Tyrell

Musicians

• Bryan Sutton – banjo, dobro, guitar (acoustic), gut string guitar, mandolin
• Viktor Krauss– bass (upright)
• Steve Brewster – drums, percussion
• John Willis – dobro, guitar (acoustic), guitar (electric), gut string guitar
• Nate Mann – rhythm
• Tania Hanscheroff – vocals (background)

Production

• Jon Allen – vocal engineer
• Ryan Carr – overdub engineer
• Maggie Berry – design
• Justin Francis – assistant engineer
• Katie Gillon – art direction
• Josiah Hendler – vocal engineer
• Luellyn Latocki Hensley – art direction
• Jason Lehning – overdub engineer
• Jordan Lehning – overdub engineer
• Kyle Lehning – mixing, producer
• Lisa Proctor – groomer
• Doug Sax – mastering
• Kevin Sokolnicki – overdub engineer
• Angela Talley – photography
• Casey Wood – engineer

Composers

• Lewis Anderson
• Burt Bacharach
• Buddy Buie
• Larry Butler
• Roger Val Christian
• James B. Cobb Jr.
• Hal David
• Hollis R. "Red Lane" DeLaughter
• Lathan Hudson
• Mark James
• Barry Mann
• Chips Moman
• Gloria Thomas
• Cynthia Weil
• Hank Williams
• Brian Wilson

Popularity of re-released songs

Chart performance

Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head may also refer to:

• Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head (Andy Williams album)
• Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head (Johnny Mathis album)
• Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head (Mel Tormé album)
• "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" (Grey's Anatomy)

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Film)

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a 1969 American Western buddy film directed by George Roy Hill and written by William Goldman. Based loosely on fact, the film tells the story of Wild West outlaws Robert LeRoy Parker, known as Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman), and his partner Harry Longabaugh, the "Sundance Kid" (Robert Redford), who are on the run from a crack US posse after a string of train robberies. The pair and Sundance's lover, Etta Place (Katharine Ross), flee to Bolivia to escape the posse.

The film was released on September 24, 1969, and while initial reviews from critics were lukewarm, it has since seen a positive retrospective reappraisal. In 2003, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The American Film Institute ranked Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as the 73rd-greatest American film on its "AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition)" list, and number 50 on the original list. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were ranked 20th-greatest heroes on "AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains". Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was selected by the American Film Institute as the 7th-greatest Western of all time in the AFI's 10 Top 10 list in 2008.

Plot

Original release trailer of the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

In 1899 Wyoming, Butch Cassidy is the affable, clever, talkative leader of the outlaw Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. His closest companion is the laconic dead-shot "Sundance Kid". Irritated by Cassidy's long absences, the gang selects Harvey Logan as their new leader. Cassidy defeats Logan in a knife fight to retain the gang's leadership and uses Logan's idea to rob a Union Pacific train on both its eastward and westward runs, agreeing that the second robbery would be unexpected and thus reap more money than the first.

The first robbery is a success and Cassidy visits a favorite brothel to celebrate. The town marshal appeals to the townsfolk to organize a posse to track down the gang but his speech is hijacked by a friendly bicycle salesman. Sundance visits his lover, schoolteacher Etta Place and Cassidy joins them, taking Place for a ride on his new bike.

During the second robbery, Cassidy uses too much dynamite on the safe and demolishes the baggage car. As the gang scrambles to gather the scattered money, a second train arrives carrying a six-man team of lawmen. The crack squad pursues Cassidy and Sundance, who hide in the brothel but are found and have to make a getaway. Cassidy and Sundance elude their pursuers by jumping from a cliff into a river far below. Place tells them the posse has been paid by Union Pacific head E. H. Harriman to remain on their trail until they are both killed.

The trio escape to Bolivia, which Cassidy envisions as a robber's paradise. Sundance is contemptuous of the country and its living conditions. Place teaches them enough Spanish to pull off a bank robbery and they become successful bank robbers known as Los Bandidos Yanquis. Their confidence drops after seeing a man wearing a white skimmer, fearing Harriman's posse is still after them. Cassidy suggests "going straight," and they gain honest work as payroll guards for a mining company. They're ambushed by local bandits on their first run, and their boss, Percy Garris, is killed. They kill the bandits, the first time Cassidy has ever shot someone. The duo concludes the straight life is not for them. Sensing they will be killed should they return to robbery, Place returns to the United States.

Cassidy and Sundance steal a payroll and the burro used to carry it. A boy in a small town recognizes the burro's brand and alerts the police, leading to a gunfight with the outlaws. Cassidy and Sundance are wounded and take cover inside a building, unaware the local police have been reinforced by Bolivian Army troops. The pair charges out of the building, guns blazing, into a hail of bullets. The film ends with the sound of gunfire on a freeze-frame shot of the two running bandits.

Cast

• Paul Newman as Butch Cassidy
• Robert Redford as the Sundance Kid
• Katharine Ross as Etta Place
• Strother Martin as Percy Garris
• Jeff Corey as Sheriff Bledsoe
• George Furth as Woodcock
• Cloris Leachman as Agnes
• Ted Cassidy as Harvey Logan
• Timothy Scott as "News" Carver
• Charles Dierkop as Flat Nose Curry
• Henry Jones as Bike Salesman
• Kenneth Mars as Marshal
• Donnelly Rhodes as Macon
• Paul Bryar and Sam Elliott as Card Players
• Jody Gilbert as Large Woman on Train
• Pancho Córdova as Bank Manager
• Enrique Lucero as Bolivian Guard
• Nelson Olmsted as Photographer

Sources:

Production

Writing and development

William Goldman first came across the story of Butch Cassidy in the late 1950s and researched intermittently for eight years before starting to write the screenplay. Goldman says he wrote the story as an original screenplay because he did not want to do the research to make it as authentic as a novel. Goldman later stated:

The whole reason I wrote the ... thing, there is that famous line that Scott Fitzgerald wrote, who was one of my heroes, "There are no second acts in American lives." When I read about Cassidy and Longabaugh and the superposse coming after them—that's phenomenal material. They ran to South America and lived there for eight years and that was what thrilled me: they had a second act. They were more legendary in South America than they had been in the old West ... It's a great story. Those two guys and that pretty girl going down to South America and all that stuff. It just seems to me it's a wonderful piece of material.

The characters' flight to South America caused one executive to reject the script, as it was then unusual in Western films for the protagonists to flee. According to Goldman, when he first wrote the script and sent it out for consideration, only one studio wanted to buy it—and that was with the proviso that the two lead characters did not flee to South America. When Goldman protested that that was what had happened, the studio head responded, "I don't give a shit. All I know is John Wayne don't run away." He then rewrote the script, "didn't change it more than a few pages, and subsequently found that every studio wanted it."

Casting

The role of Sundance was offered to Jack Lemmon, whose production company, JML, had produced the film Cool Hand Luke (1967) starring Newman. Lemmon, however, turned down the role because he did not like riding horses and felt that he had already played too many aspects of the Sundance Kid's character before. Other actors considered for the role of Sundance were Steve McQueen and Warren Beatty, who both turned it down, with Beatty claiming that the film was too similar to Bonnie and Clyde.

According to Goldman, McQueen and Newman both read the scripts at the same time and agreed to do the film. McQueen eventually backed out of the film due to disagreements with Newman. The two actors would eventually team up in the 1974 disaster film The Towering Inferno. Redford took the role as he liked the script.^[12][13]

Jacqueline Bisset was a top contender for the role of Etta Place.

Filming

Principal photography took place on-location in Utah and Colorado, and in Mexico. Utah filming locations include the ghost town of Grafton, Zion National Park, Snow Canyon State Park, and the city of St. George. These areas remain popular film tourism destinations, including the Cassidy Trail in Red Canyon. Shooting in Mexico took place in Taxco, Cuernavaca, along the Sierra Madre Occidental, and at Estudios Churubusco in Mexico City.

Soundtrack

Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote the song "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" for the film. Some felt the song had the wrong tone for a Western, but George Roy Hill insisted on its inclusion.^[17] Robert Redford, one of the stars of the film, was among those who disapproved of using the song, though he later acknowledged he was wrong:

When the film was released, I was highly critical: How did the song fit with the film? There was no rain. At the time, it seemed like a dumb idea. How wrong I was, as it turned out to be a giant hit.

Personnel

• B.J. Thomas - voice
• Marvin Stamm − trumpet
• Pete Jolly − piano
• Hubert Laws − flute
• Bob Bain, Bill Pitman − guitar
• Tommy Tedesco − ukulele
• Carol Kaye − electric bass
• Emil Richards − percussion

Release

Premieres

The world premiere of the film was on September 23, 1969, at the Roger Sherman Theater, in New Haven, Connecticut. The premiere was attended by Paul Newman, his wife Joanne Woodward, Robert Redford, George Roy Hill, William Goldman, and John Foreman, among others. It opened the next day in New York City at the Penthouse and Sutton theatres.

Home media

The film became available on DVD on May 16, 2000, in a special edition that is also available on VHS.

Reception

Box office

The film grossed $82,625 in its opening week from two theatres in New York City. The following week, it expanded and became the number-one film in the United States and Canada for two weeks. It went on to earn $15 million in theatrical rentals in the United States and Canada by the end of 1969. According to Fox records, the film required $13,850,000 in rentals to break even, and by December 11, 1970, had made $36,825,000, so made a considerable profit to the studio. It eventually returned $45,953,000 in rentals.

With a final US gross over $100 million, it was the top-grossing film released in 1969.

It was the eighth-most-popular film of 1970 in France.

Critical response

After release, reviewers gave the film mediocre grades, and New York and national reviews were "mixed to terrible", although better elsewhere, screenwriter William Goldman recalled in his book Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures in the Screen Trade.

New York Times film reviewer Vincent Canby wrote that the film is "very funny in a strictly contemporary way", but said that "at the heart of the film there is a gnawing emptiness that can't be satisfied by an awareness that Hill and Goldman knew exactly what they were doing---making a very slick movie". He described the "Raindrops" sequence as part of an effort to "play tricks on the audience" by "taking short cuts to lyricism". The performers, Canby wrote, "succeed, although the movie does not".

A Time reviewer said the film's two male stars are "afflicted with cinematic schizophrenia. One moment they are sinewy, battered remnants of a discarded tradition. The next, they are low comedians whose chaffing relationship—and dialogue—could have been lifted from a Batman and Robin episode." Time criticized the "Raindrops" sequence and the "scat-singing sound track by Burt Bacharach at his most cacophonous", which it said made the film "absurd and anachronistic".

Roger Ebert scored the film at two and a half out of four. He praised its beginning and the three lead actors, but felt it progressed too slowly and had an unsatisfactory ending. After Harriman hires his posse, though, Ebert thought the quality declined: "Hill apparently spent a lot of money to take his company on location for these scenes, and I guess when he got back to Hollywood, he couldn't bear to edit them out of the final version. So, the Super-posse chases our heroes unceasingly, until we've long since forgotten how well the movie started." Ebert reaffirmed his review in 1989 stating that he still thought it was a "turkey" and was baffled by its success.

Gene Siskel was also not a big fan of the film, stating he thought it was predictable and that it was "too cute to be believed … not memorable". Siskel later admitted in 1989 that publishing his negative review was one of his first challenges as film critic, recalling that the editorial assistant was shocked that he was giving a bad review to a film starring Paul Newman and would give him a lesson that he had to be honest as a critic, no matter how unpopular his opinion.

Accolades

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid also appears on several of the American Film Institute's 100 Years lists.

• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (1998) – #50
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills (2001) – #54
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains (2003)
  • Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid – #20 Heroes
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs (2004)
  • "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" – #23
• AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores (2005) – Nominated
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes (2005)
  • "Kid, the next time I say, 'Let's go someplace like Bolivia', let's go someplace like Bolivia." – Nominated
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) (2007) – #73^[50]
• AFI's 10 Top 10 (2008) – #7 Western Film

Legacy

See also: Hole in the Wall Gang Camp and SeriousFun Children's Network

American movie reviewers have been widely favorable. The film holds an 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 61 reviews with an average score of 8.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "With its iconic pairing of Paul Newman and Robert Redford, jaunty screenplay, and Burt Bacharach score, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid has gone down as among the defining moments in late-'60s American cinema".

After working on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Robert Redford renamed Timp Haven, a ski resort near Provo, Utah that he owned, as the Sundance Resort after the role he played in the film.^[53] In November 1979, Redford held a 3-day conference for filmmakers and professional artists at the resort, aiming to promote indie filmmakers. This laid the foundation for the Sundance Institute,^{[54]: 8–13} founded in 1981 to foster and celebrate the diversity of American filmmaking. Beginning in 1985, the U.S. Film Festival was held at the Sundance Resort and organized by the Sundance Institute;^: 3 the festival's name was officially changed to the Sundance Film Festival in 1991.

In 2006, the Writers Guild of America ranked William Goldman's screenplay 11th on its list of 101 Greatest Screenplays ever written.

The February 2020 issue of New York Magazine lists Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as among "the Best Movies that Lost Best Picture at the Oscars".

In 2003, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was selected by The New York Times as one of The 1000 Best Movies Ever Made. In the same year, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 2008, British film publication Empire ranked the film at number 32 on their list of the 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.

The film inspired the television series Alias Smith and Jones, starring Pete Duel and Ben Murphy as outlaws trying to earn an amnesty.

A parody titled "Botch Casually and the Somedunce Kid" was published in Mad. It was illustrated by Mort Drucker and written by Arnie Kogen in issue No. 136, July 1970.

Related works

Made-for-television film

Katharine Ross reprised her role as Etta Place in the 1976 made-for-television film, Wanted: The Sundance Woman.

Prequel film

Main article: Butch and Sundance: The Early Days

In 1979, Butch and Sundance: The Early Days, a prequel, was released starring Tom Berenger as Butch Cassidy and William Katt as the Sundance Kid. It was directed by Richard Lester and written by Allan Burns. William Goldman, the writer of the original film, was an executive producer. Jeff Corey was the only actor to appear in the original and the prequel.

Television adaptation

In September 2022, Amazon Studios announced a television adaptation, starring Regé-Jean Page and Glen Powell. Joe and Anthony Russo were to be executive producers under their AGBO production banner.

Watch The Movie

https://youtu.be/tJ9hxYXc9IE?si=AuzSm2-KiHar2Xau