2 Hot 100 hit for pop singer Oliver from another Oscar-winning picture that year, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

It was a heavy favorite to win, even against a strong field of nominees – “Come Saturday Morning,” “True Grit,” “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life,” and “Jean,” the latter a No. It was Bacharach and David’s first win after three losses, for “What’s New Pussycat” (1965), “Alfie” (1966) and “The Look of Love” (1967). “Raindrops” won the Oscar for best original song on April 7, 1970. 1 in July 1970 with Carpenters’ cover version of “(They Long to Be) Close to You.” Thomas returned to the top spot in April 1975 with “(Hey, Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song.”

Both artist and songwriters returned to the top spot. 1, though it was Bacharach and David’s second (following Herb Alpert’s “This Guy’s in Love With You” in 1968). It logged 13 weeks in the top 10 - the longest stay by any single in the nearly five-year period between The Beatles‘ “Hey Jude” (14 weeks in 1968) and Marvin Gaye‘s “Let’s Get It On” (13 weeks in 1973). “Raindrops” also has a strong bridge (“But there’s one thing I know/ The blues they sent to meet me won’t defeat me/ It won’t be long ’til happiness steps up to greet me”) – later echoed by a trumpet solo following the same tune - which provided vital variation in a song mostly built around a simple, sing-songy melody. Bacharach, a notorious perfectionist, asked Thomas to record seven takes before he was satisfied with the vocal for the film version.įor the single version, Bacharach added a snazzy, 30-second instrumental outro which introduced some rhythmic tension and made the song a better fit for top 40 playlists of the era. Thomas was recovering from a bout of laryngitis in 1969 when he recorded the soundtrack version of “Raindrops.” As a result, his vocal is a bit raspier and huskier than it was on the single version he recorded weeks later. Thomas, who was 28 when he recorded the song that made him a household name, died on May 29 at age 78 from complications due to stage four lung cancer. His easygoing style fused pop, country and folk in a way that made it perfect for this plucky, folksy tune. In all likelihood, no one would have done a better job on the song than Thomas. 1s of his own in the ’70s, with his “Everything Is Beautiful” reaching the top spot later in 1970.)īut songs often seem to wind up where they’re meant to. (Not Stevens’ smartest career move - though he still would go on to score a pair of Hot 100 No. They had approached Ray Stevens, who passed on the song. Thomas, who had previously reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Hooked on a Feeling” and a cover version of Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” wasn’t Bacharach and David’s first choice to perform the song.

Thomas' Biggest Billboard Hits: 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head' & More You can hear the gentle philosophizing of “Raindrops” – sure, things are bad right now, but I refuse to get stuck here – in such future Hot 100-toppers as Neil Diamond’s “Song Sung Blue” and Daniel Powter’s “Bad Day.”ī.J. But it may have been their most universal, a song that everybody who has ever had a bad day or a rough patch could relate to.ĭavid’s lyric has a dash of whimsical humor (“So, I just did me some talkin’ to the sun/ And I said I didn’t like the way he got things done/ Sleepin’ on the job”) and a lot of philosophical wisdom (“Crying’s not for me/’Cause I’m never gonna stop the rain by complainin’”), with Thomas’ delivery landing gently on each word like the titular droplets. “Raindrops…” was hardly the most sophisticated song that Burt Bacharach and Hal David - the duo who’d penned many of the most pristine and affecting pop songs of the late ’50s and ’60s, including most of Dionne Warwick’s signature smashes - ever wrote. Thomas, 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head' Singer, Dies at 78 “At the time, it seemed like a dumb idea. “When the film was released, I was highly critical - how did the song fit with the film? There was no rain,” Redford told USA Today in 2019, a half-century later. Good thing the film’s director, George Roy Hill, didn’t listen to one of his film’s stars (and a future director of note), who wasn’t sure the song made sense in the film.

Thomas’ “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” was the right song at the right time in the right film – the 1969 Paul Newman/Robert Redford blockbuster Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. 1, the enduring optimist’s anthem “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head.”ī.J. Thomas with a look at his first Hot 100 No. 1 single - by taking an extended look back at the chart-topping songs that made them part of this exclusive club. 1 is a Billboard series that pays special tribute to the recently deceased artists who achieved the highest honor our charts have to offer - a Billboard Hot 100 No.

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