"No Rain" is a song by American rock band

Blind Melon Blind Melon is an American rock band formed in 1990 in Los Angeles by five musicians: three from Mississippi, one from Pennsylvania and one from Indiana. The band currently consists of guitarists Rogers Stevens and Christopher Thorn, drummer G ...

. It was released in 1993 as the second single from the band's debut album ''

''. The song is well known for its accompanying music video, which features the " Bee Girl" character. The music video, directed by

Samuel Bayer Samuel David Bayer (born February 17, 1962) is an American visual artist, cinematographer, and commercial, music video and film director. Bayer was born in Syracuse, New York. He graduated from New York City's School of Visual Arts in 1987 with ...

, received heavy airplay on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

at the time of its release. It subsequently helped propel ''Blind Melon'' to a multi-

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Platinu ...

level. The song is the band's highest-charting song, reaching number 20 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and number one on both the ''Billboard'' Album Rock Tracks and

Modern Rock Tracks Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks (1988–2009) and Alternative Songs (2009–2020)) is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in ''Billboard'' magazine since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-played ...

charts. It proved to be successful internationally, peaking at number one in Canada and number eight in Australia.

Background

"No Rain" is in the key of E

Mixolydian Mixolydian mode may refer to one of three things: the name applied to one of the ancient Greek ''harmoniai'' or ''tonoi'', based on a particular octave species or scale; one of the medieval church modes; or a modern musical mode or diatonic scal ...

, and is performed in a moderately fast tempo. Although the song is credited to the whole band, it was bassist Brad Smith who wrote the greater part of "No Rain". He said: "The song is about not being able to get out of bed and find excuses to face the day when you have really, in a way, nothing." At the time, Smith had been dating a girl who was going through depression (she would sleep through sunny days and complain when it didn't rain), and for a while he told himself that he was writing the song from her perspective, though Smith later realized that he was also writing it about himself.

Music video

The music video, directed by

, stars

Heather DeLoach Heather DeLoach is an American actress. She is best known for her portrayal of the tap dancing "Bee Girl" in the 1992 music video for the hit single "No Rain", by Blind Melon. She also appeared in two episodes of the medical drama '' ER''. Blin ...

as the "Bee Girl", a young

tap dance Tap dance is a form of dance characterized by using the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion. Two major variations on tap dance exist: rhythm (jazz) tap and Broadway tap. Broadway tap focuses on dance; it is widely perfo ...

r wearing a homemade bee costume and large glasses, modeled after the ''Blind Melon'' album cover: a family picture of Georgia Graham, younger sister of drummer Glen Graham. The Bee Girl's story is intercut with footage of Blind Melon performing in a field against a clear blue sky. It opens on the girl's tap routine; the audience responds with mocking laughter, and the girl runs off-stage in tears. As the song plays, she wanders through Los Angeles, stopping to perform her dance for whomever will watch, but she still feels alone. Ultimately, at the point in the song where the word "escape" is repeated, she peeks through a gate, which elicits a look of astonishment on her face, then runs through it to join a group of "bee people" just like her, dancing joyfully in a green field. As a result of the video, DeLoach appeared on the 1993

MTV Video Music Awards The MTV Video Music Awards (commonly abbreviated as the VMAs) is an award show presented by the cable channel MTV to honour the best in the music video medium. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video category) ...

doing her "Bee Girl" dance to close the show, and also appeared as the "Bee Girl" in the video for

"Weird Al" Yankovic Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American singer, musician, songwriter, record producer, actor and author. He is best known for creating comedy songs that make light of pop culture and often parody specifi ...

's song "

Bedrock Anthem "Bedrock Anthem" is a song by "Weird Al" Yankovic which was featured on his 1993 album '' Alapalooza''. It is a parody of "Under the Bridge" and " Give It Away", both by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and features the same funk rock musical style. Th ...

Reception

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'' described the song as "a playfully jingle-jangle riff that feels strummed from a hammock, a beguiling falsetto vocal from wildly charismatic frontman Shannon Hoon, a sweet and mournful lyric about watching the world go by that doesn’t sound depressed even though it literally describes depression."

Track listings

The following tracks appeared on the original 1992 release: # "No Rain" 3:37 # "No Rain (Live)" 4:07 # "Drive (Live)" 4:40 # "Soak the Sin (Live)" 5:30 The following tracks appeared on the original 1992 French release: # "No Rain (live)" 5:23 # "Candy Says (Country Jellyfish version)" 3:30 # "Paper Scratcher (acoustic version)" 3:12 # "Tones of Home (remix)" 4:26 The following tracks appeared on the original 1992 Dutch release: # "No Rain (Live)" 5:23 # "Paper Scratcher (Board Mix)" 3:13 The following tracks appeared on the later 1993 CD/vinyl re-release: # "No Rain" 3:37 # "Soak the Sin (Board Mix)" 4:00 # "Paper Scratcher (Board Mix)" 3:13 # "Deserted (Board Mix)" 4:20 The following tracks appeared 1993 UK vinyl release: # "No Rain" 3:34 # "No Bidness" (Triple Vision Version) 2:23 #* recorded live at Bogarts, Cincinnati, Ohio, August 11, 1993. # "I Wonder" 5:29 A live version of the song appears on radio station

KMTT KMTT (910 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Vancouver, Washington, broadcasting to the Portland, Oregon and Clark County, Washington. KMTT is owned by Audacy, Inc. and airs a sports format with programming from ESPN Radio. The stud ...

's ''Live from the Mountain Music Lounge Volume 14'', released in 2008.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1992 songs 1993 singles Blind Melon songs RPM Top Singles number-one singles Song recordings produced by Rick Parashar pt:No Rain