Rain on the Roof (song)

"Rain on the Roof" (sometimes titled "You and Me and Rain on the Roof") is a song by American pop band the Lovin' Spoonful, written by John Sebastian. It was released as a single in October 1966 and was included on the album Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful the following month. The song reached number ten on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, making it the Lovin' Spoonful's sixth consecutive single to reach the top ten in the United States.

"Rain on the Roof"
US picture sleeve
Single by the Lovin' Spoonful
from the album Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful
B-side	"Pow (Theme from 'What's Up, Tiger Lily?')"
Released	October 1966 (1966-10)
Genre	Soft rock baroque rock
Length	2:11
Label	Kama Sutra
Songwriter(s)	John Sebastian
Producer(s)	Erik Jacobsen
The Lovin' Spoonful singles chronology
"Summer in the City" (1966) "Rain on the Roof" (1966) "Nashville Cats" (1966)
Licensed audio
"Rain on the Roof" on YouTube

"Rain on the Roof" features several guitars played by Sebastian and Zal Yanovsky, as well as an Irish harp. Released three months after the harder-rock styled single "Summer in the City", "Rain on the Roof" represented a return to the softer sound for which the Lovin' Spoonful had become known. Contemporary reviewers noted the difference between the singles, while still positively reviewing "Rain on the Roof".

Composition and recording

John Sebastian composed "Rain on the Roof" after a night spent listening to the rain with his wife Loretta "Lorey" Kaye in their Greenwich Village apartment.^[1][2] The song similarly describes two lovers listening to the rain,^[2] while featuring a melody suggestive of the Greek Mixolydian mode.^[3] Produced and arranged by the Lovin' Spoonful's regular producer Erik Jacobsen,^[2] the recording features an interplay of guitars between Zal Yanovsky and Sebastian,^[1] including a Ditson acoustic twelve-string and a pedal steel guitar.^[1][2] In addition, Sebastian played an Irish harp,^[4] a stringed instrument he acquired when the band visited Dublin in April 1966.^[1][5] Yanovsky added further elements with his Guild Thunderbird electric guitar.^[6][7] To generate a French horn-like sound,^[1][2] he turned the treble off on his guitar but turned up the amplifier's treble and gain, resulting in distortion and the beginning of feedback.^[6] Yanovksy used his standard amplifier, a Fender Super Reverb, which he later said added extra bottom end while also being loud.^[8]

Bassist Steve Boone later reflected being "mesmerized" by each of his bandmates' guitar work, characterizing it as "like music from heaven".^[1][2] Author Bernard Gendron considers the guitars reminiscent of harpsichords, leading him to place the song in the contemporary baroque rock trend.^[9] Author Maury Dean instead considers the song soft rock, due to its twelve-string guitar melody.^[10]

After recording the backing track, the band's earliest attempts at recording vocals featured a round sung by Sebastian, Yanovsky and drummer Joe Butler,^[2] similar in style to their 1965 song "Didn't Want to Have to Do It".^[1] They abandoned this format for the final recording, instead opting for a solo vocal from Sebastian.^[2] The recording fades out on a dominant seventh chord, which according to musicologist Walter Everett means the song "never [achieves a] full-cadence closure", leaving it feeling unresolved.^[11]

Release and reception

The possibility of releasing "Rain on the Roof" as a single generated disagreement among the members of the Lovin' Spoonful.^[1][12] The band's previous single "Summer in the City" featured a harder sound than their previous output,^[13][14] and it had attracted new fans to the group after it reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in August 1966.^[15][16] Both Boone and Butler worried that returning to a softer sound with "Rain on the Roof" would potentially alienate the band's new fans.^[15][17] Sebastian countered that the band ought to avoid releasing consecutive singles which sounded too similar, further contending that "Rain on the Roof" would add another dimension to their sound.^{[15][nb 1]}

Kama Sutra Records issued "Rain on the Roof" as a single in October 1966.^[18][19] In the October 8 issue of Billboard, the magazine's review panel highlighted the song as likely to reach the top 20 of the Hot 100,^[20] and the single debuted on the chart the following week at number 76.^[21] It remained on the chart for ten weeks and peaked at number ten, making it the Lovin' Spoonful's sixth consecutive single to reach the top ten.^[16] The song was later included on the band's November 1966 album Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful,^[22] where it appeared as the opening track of side two.^[1] Because the song shared its name with a 1931 composition by songwriter Ann Ronell,^[23] Kama Sutra altered its title on Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful to "You and Me and Rain on the Roof".^[24]

Among contemporary critics, Billboard's reviewer counted "Rain on the Roof" as a continuation of the band's "unpredictable, fresh, original material", writing that the "clever rhythm ballad with [a] baroque feel" was a likely blockbuster.^[20] Reviewers in both Cash Box and Record World magazines highlighted the song's difference from "Summer in the City",^[25][26] Cash Box's reviewer calling it a return to the band's "soft-rock stylings".^[25] In an interview with Melody Maker magazine in December 1966, Bruce Woodley of the Australian pop group the Seekers praised the song's guitar work as beautiful while questioning why the song was not a hit in the United Kingdom.^[27] Writing about the song decades later, author Charles Winick considers "Rain on the Roof"'s melody and lyrics as having more in common with the music of decades earlier than contemporary rock music.^[28]

Charts

Weekly chart performance Chart (1966) Peak position Australia National Top 40 (Go-Set)^[29] 31 Canada Top Singles (RPM)^[30] 12 Netherlands (Veronica Top 40)^[31] 11 Netherlands (Hilversum 3 Top 30)^[32] 13 US Billboard Hot 100^[16] 10 US Cash Box Top 100^[33] 9 US Record World 100 Top Pops^[34] 6

Notes

1. Reflecting on the situation decades later, Boone questioned why Kama Sutra did not demand a more natural follow-up to "Summer in the City" while expecting that the label were inclined to show deference to Sebastian after he had achieved a number one single.^[15]

References

Citations

1. Diken 2003.
2. Boone & Moss 2014, p. 148.
3. Levitin 2008, p. 28.
4. Everett 2009, p. 45.
5. Boone & Moss 2014, pp. 116, 148.
6. Everett 2009, p. 48.
7. Simons 2004, pp. 100–101.
8. Simons 2004, p. 100.
9. Gendron 2002, p. 343n59.
10. Dean 2003, p. 191.
11. Everett 2009, p. 138.
12. Boone & Moss 2014, pp. 148–149.
13. Savage 2015, p. 284.
14. Unterberger, Richie. "Summer in the City – The Lovin' Spoonful". AllMusic. from the original on August 11, 2021. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
15. Boone & Moss 2014, p. 149.
16. "The Lovin' Spoonful Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved February 27, 2022.
17. Richards, Sam (September 2021). Bonner, Michael (ed.). "The Making of ... Summer in the City by The Lovin' Spoonful". UNCUT. No. 292. pp. 92–94 – via the Internet Archive.
18. Savage 2015, p. 561.
19. Rodriguez 2012, p. 252.
20. Anon. (October 8, 1966). "Spotlight Singles". Billboard. p. 16.
21. "Billboard Hot 100 (for the week ending October 15, 1966)". Billboard. from the original on February 17, 2023. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
22. Zimmerman & Zimmerman 2004, p. 113.
23. Zimmers 2009, pp. 14–15.
24. Ruhlmann, William. "Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful – The Lovin' Spoonful". AllMusic. from the original on November 17, 2022. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
25. Anon. (October 8, 1966). "Record Reviews". Cash Box. p. 10.
26. Anon. (October 8, 1966). "Single Picks of the Week". Record World. p. 1.
27. Woodley, Bruce (December 10, 1966). "Blind Date: Bruce Woodley of the Seekers". Melody Maker. p. 10.
28. Winick 2018, p. 46.
29. "Go-Set's National Top 40". Go-Set. December 21, 1966. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
30. "RPM 100". RPM. December 6, 1966. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
31. "Nederlandse Top 40 – The Lovin' Spoonful" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
32. "The Lovin' Spoonful – Rain on the Roof" (in Dutch). Dutch Single Top 100. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
33. "Cash Box Top 100 – Week of November 19, 1966". Cash Box. November 19, 1966. p. 4.
34. "Record World 100 Top Pops – Week of November 26, 1966". Record World. November 26, 1966. p. 25.

Sources

• Boone, Steve; Moss, Tony (2014). Hotter Than a Match Head: My Life on the Run with The Lovin' Spoonful. Toronto: ECW Press. ISBN 978-1-77041-193-7 – via Google Books.
• Dean, Maury (2003). Rock N Roll Gold Rush: A Singles Un-Cyclopedia. New York City: Algora Publishing. ISBN 978-0-87586-207-1 – via Google Books.
• Diken, Dennis (2003). Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful (Liner notes). The Lovin' Spoonful. Buddha, BMG Heritage. 74465 99732 2.
• Everett, Walter (2009). The Foundations of Rock: From "Blue Suede Shoes" to "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes". Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-531024-5 – via Google Books.
• Gendron, Bernard (2002). Between Montmartre and the Mudd Club: Popular Music and the Avant-Garde. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-28737-9 – via Google Books.
• Levitin, Daniel J. (2008). The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature. New York City: Dutton. ISBN 978-0-525-95073-8 – via the Internet Archive.
• Rodriguez, Robert (2012). Revolver: How the Beatles Re-Imagined Rock 'n' Roll. Montclair: Backbeat Books. ISBN 978-1-61713-009-0.
• Savage, Jon (2015). 1966: The Year the Decade Exploded. London: Faber & Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-27762-9 – via the Internet Archive.
• Simons, David (2004). Studio Stories: How the Great New York Records Were Made: From Miles to Madonna, Sinatra to The Ramones. San Francisco, California: Backbeat Books. ISBN 978-0-87930-817-9 – via the Internet Archive.
• Winick, Charles (2018). Desexualization in American Life. New York City: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-31279-0 – via Google Books.
• Zimmerman, Keith; Zimmerman, Kent (2004). Sing My Way Home: Voices of the New American Roots Rock. San Francisco, California: Backbeat Books. ISBN 978-0-87930-790-5 – via the Internet Archive.
• Zimmers, Tighe E. (2009). Tin Pan Alley Girl: A Biography of Ann Ronell. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-3905-8 – via Google Books.

External links

• "Rain on the Roof" at Discogs (list of releases)