"Lizzie and the Rainman" is a song written by

Kenny O'Dell Kenneth Guy Gist Jr. (June 21, 1944 – March 27, 2018), known as Kenny O'Dell, was an American country music singer and songwriter, best known for writing the number-one country hits " Behind Closed Doors" (recorded by Charlie Rich, 1973) and ...

and

Larry Henley Larry Joel Henley (June 30, 1937 – December 18, 2014) was an American singer and songwriter, best known for co-writing (with Jeff Silbar) the 1989 hit record "Wind Beneath My Wings". Early life Henley was born to Carl Henley and Helen Quinn in Od ...

. The song was first recorded in 1972 being that year a single release for its co-writer Kenny O'Dell and an album cut for respectively

Bobby Goldsboro Robert Charles Goldsboro (born January 18, 1941) is an American pop and country singer and songwriter. He had a string of pop and country hits in the 1960s and 1970s, including his signature No. 1 hit "Honey", which sold over 1 million copies in ...

(''California Wine'') and

the Hollies The Hollies are a British pop rock band, formed in 1962. One of the leading British groups of the 1960s and into the mid-1970s, they are known for their distinctive three-part vocal harmony style. Allan Clarke (singer), Allan Clarke and Graham ...

(" Romany", under the slightly different title "Lizzy and the Rain Man").

Background

"Lizzie and the Rainman" relates how a rainmaker visiting a

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

-stricken

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

town woos a skeptical local woman named Lizzie Cooper. The idea for the song came from the film '' The Rainmaker'' whose heroine is named Lizzie Curry.

Tanya Tucker recording

In 1975, the song was recorded by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

artist

Tanya Tucker Tanya Denise Tucker (born October 10, 1958) is an American country music singer and songwriter who had her first hit, "Delta Dawn", in 1972 at the age of 13. Over the succeeding decades, Tucker became one of the few child performers to mature int ...

. A narrative song as was typical for the first phase of Tucker's career. She recorded her vocal for "Lizzie and the Rainman" in a 19 March 1975 sessio

in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

produced by

Snuff Garrett Thomas Lesslie Garrett (July 5, 1938 – December 16, 2015) known as Snuff Garrett or Tommy Garrett, was an American record producer whose most famous work was during the 1960s and 1970s. Early years Garrett was born in Dallas, Texas, United ...

; Tucker would recall: "the recording was so impersonal. I was used to recording live with all the musicians in the studio, and I just sang to the tracks on this one." Released as the lead single from the album ''

'' - which marked Tucker's

MCA Records MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc., which later became part of Universal Music Group. Pre-history MCA Inc., a powerful talent agency and a television production company, entered the recorded music business in 1962 wit ...

debut - "Lizzie and the Rainman" was Tucker's fourth

Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...

#1 and was also her first single to make the Pop

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " con ...

, reaching #37 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in June 1975. A #7 A/C hit, "Lizzie and the Rainman" would prove to be Tucker's only Top 40 hit despite her later recording material more specifically aimed at the Pop market; her one subsequent Hot 100 item " Here's Some Love" peaked at #82.

Chart performance

Other recordings

*In 1973, Alex Taylor had a single release of the song.

References

Songs about weather Songs about occupations 1975 singles 1972 songs Bobby Goldsboro songs Tanya Tucker songs Songs written by Kenny O'Dell Songs written by Larry Henley Song recordings produced by Snuff Garrett MCA Records singles {{1970s-country-song-stub