The Cascades – Rhythm of the Rain

My older cousin had given me this single but it skipped so much I replaced it. When I was 5 or 6 I had a fascination with this song. I’m not sure why I liked it so much… but I bought the single in Donelson…a town near Nashville with my mom. The song has a nice pop melody.

The song peaked at #3 in the Billboard 100 in 1963. This was the band’s only top ten hit. They had a total of 5 songs crack the Billboard 100.

This was recorded at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles, which is where Phil Spector produced many of his hits. Some of the elite west coast studio musicians played on this song, including the legendary session drummer Hal Blaine and guitarist Glen Campbell.

It was written by The Cascades lead singer John Gummoe: “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.”

 

From Songfacts

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.”

Gummoe: “Most of the guys though were together on into the mid ’70s. We then reformed for a one night reunion at the Greek theater in Los Angeles in 1995. Next was in 2004 when I was contacted by Danee Samonte (AKA Steve O’Neal) a DJ and promoter in Manila. I contacted Gabe Lapano and Tony Grasso who had at different times been members of the group and we then did four tours of The Philippines which also included a gig in Maylaysia and a gig in Japan. We are blessed by our popularity in The Philippines and we love the Philippine people. We’ve met Gloria, the president and have been to Imelda’s mansion for a party which she threw for us two years ago. We meet mayors, congressmen and other government dignitaries on a regular basis when we are there.”

Gummoe: “A few years ago, I was asked to be a part of a great book that was put together by the legendary Graham Nash. It’s called Off the Record and it contains stories about many famous songs and famous songwriters. The book includes CDs with live interviews with each of the featured songwriters. In conjunction with this, I was asked to do an original piece of art using my song and that is included in the book. In the last four years, I’ve been to Asia on four occasions for concert tours, mainly in The Philippine Islands. During this period, The Cascades and I have done a couple of new CDs which are available on itunes for download. One CD is called All the Way to Yesterday and the other is called We’ve still Got the Magic.” (Thanks to John for the stories. Learn more at rhythmoftherain.com, where you can hear different versions of this song. John adds that his email address is on the site and he’s always happy to hear from the fans around the world.)

Former Neighbours actor and late 1980s teen pop star, Jason Donovan, had a #9 in the UK in 1990 with his cover.

Rhythm of the Rain

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