♫ Rhythm Of The Rain ♫

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Tonight, I am taking you on a journey waaaaaaay back … to 1962.  I actually stole this idea from blogging friend JoAnna over at Anything Is Possible!, for the other night she began her post with …

“As I write this on Friday afternoon, I’m listening to the rhythm of the falling rain …”

And naturally, my mind seized on it, the song wormed its way into the center of my head, and there it stuck.  And so, thank her or blame her, but this is all JoAnna’s fault!

This was written by The Cascades lead singer John Gummoe, who tells us …

“I wrote ‘Rhythm of the Rain’ over a period of time, but the lyrics began while I was serving in the U.S. Navy aboard the U.S.S. Jason AR8. I was standing a mid watch on the bridge while we were underway to Japan. We were sailing up in the north pacific and it was raining heavily and the seas were tossing.

The title came to me first and I liked the ‘ring’ of it, the way it flowed, and that night I wrote down most of the lyrics. It was like the rain was talking. It was later on that I sat down at a piano and was fooling around with the black keys and started playing a sequence from E flat down to F sharp, well, if you do it you’ll see it’s the melody that is now stuck in the heads of millions of people around the world. Later on, when we did a demo on the song, that great little ding ding thing that goes FC-FC, DA, DA came to be. The great arranger Perry Botkin Jr. enhanced that little hook and it was producer Barry De Vorzon who came up with the idea of opening the song with that famous burst of thunder.”

Hundreds of artists have covered this song, including Lawrence Welk, Bobby Darin, Dan Fogelberg, Jan & Dean, Neil Sedaka and Jerry Jeff Walker. A huge worldwide hit, BMI named “Rhythm of the Rain” the 9th most performed song of the 20th century.

The Cascades next singles, Shy Girl and Last Leaf, failed to chart, and Gummoe left the band in 1967, because he was “mainly just tired of being on the road and our career was going downhill instead of up.”

This song hit #1 in Canada, Ireland and the U.S., #5 in the UK.

Rhythm of the Rain
The Cascades

Listen to the rhythm of the falling rain
Telling me just what a fool I’ve been
I wish that it would go and let me cry in vain
And let me be alone again

The only girl I care about has gone away
Looking for a brand new start
But little does she know that when she left that day
Along with her she took my heart

Rain please tell me now does that seem fair
For her to steal my heart away when she don’t care?
I can’t love another when my hearts somewhere far away

The only girl I care about has gone away
Looking for a brand new start
But little does she know that when she left that day
Along with her she took my heart

Rain won’t you tell her that I love her so
Please ask the sun to set her heart aglow
Rain in her heart and let the love we knew start to grow

Listen to the rhythm of the falling rain
Telling me just what a fool I’ve been
I wish that it would go and let me cry in vain
And let me be alone again

Oh, listen to the falling rain
Pitter patter, pitter patter
Oh, oh, oh, listen to the falling rain
Pitter patter, pitter patter

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: John C. Gummoe
Rhythm of the Rain lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc

26 thoughts on “♫ Rhythm Of The Rain ♫”

  2. I’m so glad you shared this song since my Stream of Consciousness didn’t take me back there again on Saturday. It’s one of the prettiest sounding sad songs I’ve ever heard. That’s partly due to the time it was written, but also because the rhythm of the falling rain can be comforting – crying along with us and softening the edges of our sadness.

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  3. GAH, If we had to pay Royalties for songs we play in our heads you’ve just put me in heavy debt, .It’s burrowed in and I’m singing along so I might have to pay for that too. Naturally it’s far too old for me to have heard it before…….be kind.
    Cwtch

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