Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head (Song)

For other uses, see Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head (disambiguation).

"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

Year-end charts

All-time charts

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.

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).
• 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.

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)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

By Source (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use, Link

"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. It won an Academy Award for Best Original Song. 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 No. 1 on charts in the United States, Canada, Norway and reached No. 38 in 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, Thomas' single had sold over 2 million copies by March 14, 1970, with eight-track and cassette versions also climbing the charts.

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.

The song has been covered numerous times.

Dionne Warwick

Johnny Mathis

https://youtu.be/KDDnUJ0XTZM

Levi Stubbs/Four Tops

https://youtu.be/9Y2g0Ieh6SY

Dean Martin

https://youtu.be/o_ZLyl7bjiY

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head - B.J. Thomas. - instrumental cover by Dave Monk