"Can You Stand the Rain" is a ballad by R&B/pop group

New Edition New Edition is an American R&B/Pop group from the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1978 by Bobby Brown. Their name is taken to mean a 'new edition' of the Jackson 5. The group reached its height of popularity in the 19 ...

. The song was released on December 13, 1988 by

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 w ...

as the third single from their fifth studio album, ''

Heart Break ''Heart Break'' is the fifth studio album by American contemporary R&B, R&B quintet New Edition, released June 20, 1988 by MCA Records. It is the first album to return the Boston-reared band as a quintet after the public exit of original member B ...

''.

Overview

Written and produced by

Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis James Samuel "Jimmy Jam" Harris III (born June 6, 1959) and Terry Steven Lewis (born November 24, 1956) are an American R&B/pop songwriting and record production team. They have enjoyed great success since the 1980s with various artists, most ...

with

Johnny Gill Johnny Gill Jr. (born May 22, 1966) is an American singer and actor. He is the sixth and final member of the R&B/pop group New Edition and was also a member of the supergroup called LSG, with Gerald Levert and Keith Sweat. Gill has released e ...

Ralph Tresvant Ralph Edward Tresvant (born May 16, 1968) is an American singer, songwriter, actor and record producer, best known as the lead singer of R&B group New Edition. As a solo artist, Tresvant released the album '' Ralph Tresvant'' (1990). In 2008, he ...

and Ricky Bell on lead vocals and

Michael Bivins New Edition is an American R&B/Pop group from the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1978 by Bobby Brown. Their name is taken to mean a 'new edition' of the Jackson 5. The group reached its height of popularity in the 1980 ...

with a spoken piece, "Can You Stand the Rain" is about a relationship presently going well, but the man is asking the woman if he can count on her to remain by his side, in case things should ever become stormy.

Release and reception

Despite "Can You Stand The Rain" failing to reach the Hot 100 top forty, peaking instead at number 44, it became New Edition's fourth single to top Billboard's

R&B singles chart The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

Track listings

# "Can You Stand the Rain" (Album Version) - 5:00 # "Can You Stand the Rain" (Under the Lamppost/Quiet Storm Mix) - 4:35 # "Can You Stand the Rain" (Extended Version) - 6:56

Other versions

"Can You Stand the Rain" was sampled by New Edition themselves for their 1996 song, "Home Again" from their album of the same name. "Can You Stand the Rain" was covered by Boyz II Men for their 1997 album, ''

Evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

''. In 2001, freestyle singers Safire & Cynthia turned the song into a freestyle/club jam, and the song was featured on Safire's CD "Bringing Back The Groove". In 2002, Tom Scott covered it on his smooth jazz album, "New Found Freedom". In 2003, the song was also covered by

Guy Sebastian Guy Theodore Sebastian (born 26 October 1981) is an Australian singer and songwriter who was the winner of the first ''Australian Idol'' in 2003, judge on Australia's ''The X Factor'' from 2010 to 2012 and again from 2015 to 2016, and coach ...

, the first winner of '' Australian Idol'', on his debut album, '' Just as I am.'' The song gained attention in ''

Making the Band ''Making the Band'' is an ABC/MTV reality television series that exists in separate iterations, each focusing on a specific music act. It spawned musical acts O-Town, Da Band, Danity Kane, Day26, and Donnie Klang. Except for the first iteration o ...

'', when covered by contestants in the show. In 2008, gospel group The Murrills covered the song with alternative lyrics for their album, ''Family Prayer''. "Can You Stand the Rain" was sampled by

Big Sean Sean Michael Leonard Anderson (born March 25, 1988), known professionally as Big Sean, is an American rapper. Anderson began his music career in 2007 and gained popularity in 2010 with his third mixtape '' Finally Famous Vol. 3: Big''. He then s ...

for his single "

My Last "My Last" is the lead single by American rapper Big Sean featuring American singer Chris Brown, from the former's debut album '' Finally Famous''. The song is produced by No I.D.

" featuring Chris Brown. It was featured during the "Thanksgiving" episode of the second season of the Netflix series ''

Master of None ''Master of None'' is an American comedy-drama streaming television series, which was released for streaming on November 6, 2015, on Netflix. The series was created by Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang, with the first two seasons starring Ansari in the ...

''. It was featured during the

Lip-synching Lip sync or lip synch (pronounced , the same as the word ''sink'', short for lip synchronization) is a technical term for matching a speaking or singing person's lip movements with sung or spoken vocals. Audio for lip syncing is generated th ...

scene in the 2013 holiday film, ''

The Best Man Holiday ''The Best Man Holiday'' is a 2013 American comedy-drama film written, co-produced and directed by Malcolm D. Lee. A sequel to Lee's '' The Best Man'' (1999), it stars Morris Chestnut, Taye Diggs, Regina Hall, Terrence Howard, Sanaa Lathan, Ni ...

''. It was featured in the season 15 of ''

The Voice The Voice may refer to: Fictional entities * The Voice or Presence, a fictional representation of God in DC Comics * The Voice (''Dune''), a fictional ability in the ''Dune'' universe * The Voice, a character in the American TV series ''Cleo ...

'' performed by contestants DeAndre Nico and Funsho from Team Adam. “Can You Stand the Rain" was sampled by K. Michelle for her single, '' The Rain'' for her album '' All Monsters Are Human '' It was performed in the movie "''

The New Edition Story ''The New Edition Story'' is an American biographical three-part miniseries about the contemporary R&B, R&B group New Edition, from their rise to fame as a boy band from the Orchard Park Projects of Roxbury, Massachusetts, to becoming a successfu ...

''" on

BET Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los ...

, by

Algee Smith Algee Smith IV (born November 7, 1994) is an American actor and singer. After appearing in several small television roles, Smith first rose to fame portraying Ralph Tresvant in BET's ''The New Edition Story'' miniseries. The same year, he garner ...

, Bryshere Y. Gray,

Elijah Kelley Elijah Kelley (born August 1, 1986) is an American actor, singer, and dancer. He appeared in films such as '' 28 Days'' (2000), '' Take the Lead'' (2006), '' Hairspray'' (2007), '' Red Tails'' (2012), ''Lee Daniels' The Butler'' (2013), NBC's liv ...

Keith Powers Keith Tyree Powers (born August 22, 1992) is an American actor and model. He is best known for his roles as Ronnie DeVoe in BET's miniseries ''The New Edition Story'' and Tyree in the film '' Straight Outta Compton''. Career After graduating ...

, & Luke James.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

1980s ballads 1988 singles 1988 songs Contemporary R&B ballads Guy Sebastian songs MCA Records singles New Edition songs New jack swing songs Pop ballads Song recordings produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis Songs written by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis Soul ballads {{1980s-R&B-song-stub