"It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" or "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More" is a song by "The Red-Headed Music Maker", singer and instrumentalist
Wendell Hall
Wendell Woods Hall (August 23, 1896, St. George, Kansas – April 2, 1969, Fairhope, Alabama) was an American country singer, vaudeville artist, songwriter, pioneer radio performer, Victor recording artist and ukulele player.
Biography
Hall wa ...
(1896–1969). Hall's 1923 recording of it was a hit in the US and also in Britain, where it was sung during the 1925 FA Cup final by
Sheffield United
Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...
supporters, making it a popular football song of the era.
This song is an example of the folk tradition of transmission with local variants. Antecedents from the 19th century are known.
Carl Sandburg
Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Sandburg ...
suggested that the song goes back at least to the 1870s and includes verses in his ''American Songbag'' (1927). By the 1920s many variants were already extant in popular culture. Mr. Hall most likely codified what already existed and added original verses.
The song may be somewhat familiar to modern listeners because of its use in a number of films, especially vintage animated cartoons, typically in the form of a brief vocal refrain or as an instrumental musical comment. It is featured at the end of a 1930 Pathé Studios cartoon titled ''Noah Knew His Ark'', and part of it is sung in ''
The Plumber'', a 1933
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (also known as Oswald the Rabbit or Oswald Rabbit) is a cartoon character created in 1927 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks for Universal Pictures. He starred in several animated short films released to theaters from 1927 to 19 ...
cartoon.
This tradition has continued into modern times: a part of the song was sung in the 2014 film ''
Against the Sun'' and was also featured over the end credits.
In 1991
Greg & Steve recorded the song along with
Rain Rain Go Away
"Rain, Rain, Go Away" is a popular English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19096.
Lyrics
There are few versions and variations of this rhyming couplet. The most common modern version is:
:Rain, rain, go away, ...
from their album ''Playing Favorites''
In 2019, the song entered the public domain in the United States.
1923 songs
1924 singles
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