"Don't Let the Rain Come Down (Crooked Little Man)" was a folk music single, the debut recording of the

Serendipity Singers The Serendipity Singers were a 1960s American folk group, similar to The New Christy Minstrels. Their debut single " Don't Let the Rain Come Down (Crooked Little Man)" was a Top Ten hit and received the group's only Grammy nomination in 1965. The ...

in 1964. The song was based on the English

nursery rhyme A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes. From t ...

" There Was a Crooked Man". The song was first recorded as "Crooked Little House" by

Jimmie Rodgers James Charles Rodgers (September 8, 1897 – May 26, 1933) was an American singer-songwriter and musician who rose to popularity in the late 1920s. Widely regarded as "the Father of Country Music", he is best known for his distinctive rhythmi ...

in 1960, on his album ''At Home with Jimmie Rodgers - An Evening of Folk Songs'', on which the songwriting was credited to

Ersel Hickey Ersel Hickey (born Ersel O'Hickey, June 27, 1934 – July 9, 2004) was an American rockabilly singer best known for his hit song "Bluebirds over the Mountain". Early life Hickey was born in Brighton, New York, and was named after the family d ...

and Ed E. Miller. In 1964, it was recorded by the Serendipity Singers in a

calypso music Calypso is a style of Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago during the early to the mid-19th century and spread to the rest of the Caribbean Antilles and Venezuela by the mid-20th century. Its rhythms can be traced back to We ...

-based adaptation and

arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...

by the group's musical director Bob Bowers, with group members Bryan Sennett and John Madden. In the midst of

Beatlemania Beatlemania was the fanaticism surrounding the English rock band the Beatles in the 1960s. The group's popularity grew in the United Kingdom throughout 1963, propelled by the singles "Please Please Me", "From Me to You" and "She Loves You". By ...

, the record reached #2 on the U.S.

Adult Contemporary chart The Adult Contemporary chart is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary radio stations in the United States. The chart is compiled based on airplay data submitted to ''Billboard'' by sta ...

, #6 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, and #7 in Canada in April and May 1964. "Don't Let the Rain Come Down" (Phillips 40175) was the #1 song on the April 17, 1964 WLS Silver Dollar Survey, and also topped surveys in Louisville, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh and elsewhere. It was released on their premiere album, ''The Serendipity Singers''. Later reissues of the Serendipity Singers' recording credited Hickey and Miller as the song's writers. In a "My Music, Folk Rewind" video, the group's nine members appear as three groups of three, with each group singing its particular verse; all nine members sing in each repetition of the chorus. The song was also covered by The Brothers Four on their album ''More Big Folk Hits''; Trini Lopez on ''The Folk Album'' (1965); "Crooked Little Man (Don't Let the Rain Come Down) ", ''SecondhandSongs.com''
Retrieved 18 March 2018 and Ronnie Hilton, whose version was a hit in the UK, peaking at #21 in 1964.

References

{{authority control 1964 singles American folk songs Songs written by Ersel Hickey 1960 songs Philips Records singles