"Rain on the Roof" (sometimes titled "You and Me and Rain on the Roof") is a song by the Canadian-American folk-rock band

the Lovin' Spoonful The Lovin' Spoonful is a Canadian-American folk-rock band formed in Greenwich Village, New York City, in 1964. The band were among the most popular groups in the United States for a short period in the mid-1960s and their music and image influ ...

. Written by

John Sebastian John Benson Sebastian (born March 17, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter and musician who founded the rock band the Lovin' Spoonful in 1964 with Zal Yanovsky. During his time in the Lovin Spoonful, Sebastian wrote and sang some of the ban ...

, the song was released as a single in October1966 and was included on the album '' Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful'' the following month. The song reached number ten on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, making it the Lovin' Spoonful's sixth-consecutive single to reach the top ten in the United States. "Rain on the Roof" features several guitars played by Sebastian and

Zal Yanovsky Zalman Yanovsky (December 19, 1944 – December 13, 2002) was a Canadian folk-rock musician and restaurateur. Born in Toronto, he was the son of political cartoonist Avrom Yanovsky and teacher Nechama Yanovsky (née Gemeril), who died in 1958. ...

, as well as an

Irish harp The Celtic harp is a triangular frame harp traditional to the Celtic nations of northwest Europe. It is known as in Irish, in Scottish Gaelic, in Breton and in Welsh. In Ireland and Scotland, it was a wire-strung instrument requiring gr ...

. Released three months after the harder-rock styled single " Summer in the City", "Rain on the Roof" represented a return to the softer sound for which the Lovin' Spoonful had become known. Contemporary reviewers noted the difference between the singles, while still positively reviewing "Rain on the Roof".

Composition and recording

composed "Rain on the Roof" after a night spent listening to the rain with his wife Loretta "Lorey" Kaye in their

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...

apartment. The song similarly describes two lovers listening to the rain, while featuring a melody suggestive of the Greek Mixolydian mode. Produced and arranged by

's regular producer

Erik Jacobsen Erik Jacobsen (born May 19, 1940) is an American record producer, song publisher and artist manager. He is best known for his work in the 1960s with Tim Hardin, the Lovin' Spoonful, The Charlatans (American band), the Charlatans, and Sopwith Cam ...

, the recording features an interplay of guitars between

and Sebastian, including a Ditson acoustic twelve-string and a

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a console steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings, enabling more varied and complex music to be played than with other steel guitar designs. Like all steel guitars, it can play ...

. In addition, Sebastian played an

, a stringed instrument he acquired when the band visited

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

in April1966. Yanovsky added further elements with his Guild Thunderbird electric guitar. To generate a

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most o ...

-like sound, he turned the treble off on his guitar but turned up the

amplifier An amplifier, electronic amplifier or (informally) amp is an electronic device that can increase the magnitude of a signal (a time-varying voltage or current). It is a two-port electronic circuit that uses electric power from a power su ...

's treble and gain, resulting in distortion and the beginning of

feedback Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause and effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handle ...

. Yanovksy used his standard amplifier, a

Fender Super Reverb The Fender Super Reverb is a guitar amplifier made by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, Fender. It was introduced in 1963 and was discontinued in 1982. The Super Reverb was a Fender Super amplifier with built-in reverb and "vibrato" (a ...

, which he later said added extra bottom end while also being loud.

Steve Boone John Stephen Boone (born September 23, 1943) is an American bass guitarist and music producer, best known as a member of the American folk-rock group the Lovin' Spoonful. Boone co-wrote two of the groups' biggest hits, " You Didn't Have to Be So ...

, the band's bassist, later reflected being "mesmerized" by each of his bandmates' guitar work, characterizing it as "like music from heaven". The author Bernard Gendron considers the guitars reminiscent of

harpsichords A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. Depressing a key raises its back end within the instrument, which in turn raises a mechanism with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic that plucks one or more strings ...

, leading him to place the song in the contemporary baroque rock trend. The author Maury Dean instead considers the song

soft rock Soft rock (also known as light rock or mellow rock) is a form of rock music that originated in the late 1960s in the United States and the United Kingdom which smoothed over the edges of singer-songwriter and pop rock, relying on simple, mel ...

, due to its twelve-string guitar melody. After recording the

backing track A backing track is an audio recording on audiotape, CD or a digital recording medium or a MIDI recording of synthesized instruments, sometimes of purely rhythmic accompaniment, often of a rhythm section or other accompaniment parts that live m ...

, the band's earliest attempts at recording vocals featured a

round Round or rounds may refer to: Mathematics and science * Having no sharp corners, as an ellipse, circle, or sphere * Rounding, reducing the number of significant figures in a number * Round number, ending with one or more zeroes * Round (crypt ...

sung by Sebastian, Yanovsky and drummer

Joe Butler Joseph Campbell Butler (born September 16, 1941) is an American drummer, singer and actor. He is best known as a member of folk-rock band the Lovin' Spoonful, where he was their drummer and later lead vocalist, the group had seven top 10 hits ...

, similar in style to their 1965 song " Didn't Want to Have to Do It". They abandoned this format for the final recording, instead opting for a solo vocal from Sebastian. The recording fades out on a

dominant seventh chord Domination or dominant may refer to: Society * World domination, structure where one dominant power governs the planet * Colonialism in which one group (usually a nation) invades another region for material gain or to eliminate competition * Ch ...

, which according to musicologist Walter Everett means the song "never chieves afull-

cadence In Classical music, Western musical theory, a cadence () is the end of a Phrase (music), phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution (music), resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards.Don ...

closure", leaving it feeling unresolved.

Release and reception

The possibility of releasing "Rain on the Roof" as a single generated disagreement among the members of the Spoonful. The band's previous single, " Summer in the City", had featured a harder sound than their previous output, and it had attracted new fans to the group after it reached number one on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in August1966. Both Boone and Butler worried that returning to a softer sound with "Rain on the Roof" would potentially alienate the band's new fans. Sebastian countered that the band ought to avoid releasing consecutive singles which sounded too similar, further contending that "Rain on the Roof" would add another dimension to their sound.

Kama Sutra Records Kama Sutra Records was started in 1964 by Artie Ripp, Hy Mizrahi, and Phil Steinberg as Kama Sutra Productions, a production house. The ''Kama Sutra'' is an ancient Sanskrit text. In 1965, the company was joined by Art Kass and the record labe ...

issued "Rain on the Roof" as a single in October1966. In the October8 issue of ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'', the magazine's review panel highlighted the song as likely to reach the top 20 of the Hot 100, and the single debuted on the chart the following week at number 76. It remained on the chart for ten weeks and peaked at number ten, making it the Lovin' Spoonful's sixth consecutive single to reach the top ten. The song was later included on the band's November1966 album '' Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful'', where it appeared as the opening track of side two. Because the song shared its name with a 1931 composition by songwriter

Ann Ronell Ann Ronell (née Rosenblatt; December 25, 1905 – December 25, 1993) was an American composer and lyricist. She was best known for the standards " Willow Weep for Me" (1932) and "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" (1933). Early life Ronell was bo ...

, Kama Sutra altered its title on ''Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful'' to "You and Me and Rain on the Roof". ''Billboard'' reviewer counted "Rain on the Roof" as a continuation of the band's "unpredictable, fresh, original material", writing that the "clever rhythm ballad with baroque feel" was a likely blockbuster. Reviewers in both ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', is an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' and ''

Record World ''Record World'' magazine was one of three major weekly music industry trade magazines in the United States, with ''Billboard'' and '' Cashbox''. It was founded in 1946 as ''Music Vendor''. In 1964, it was changed to ''Record World'' under the ...

'' magazines highlighted the song's difference from "Summer in the City", ''Cash Box'' reviewer calling it a return to the band's "soft-rock stylings". In the UK, Jonathan King of ''

Disc and Music Echo ''Disc'' was a weekly British popular music magazine, published between 1958 and 1975, when it was incorporated into ''Record Mirror''. It was also known for periods as ''Disc Weekly '' (1964–1966) and ''Disc and Music Echo '' (1966–1972). ...

'' wrote that, while everyone else was "raving" about the single, he "detest d it. In an interview with ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. In January 2001, it was merged into "long-standing rival" (and IPC Media sister publicatio ...

'' magazine in December1966,

Bruce Woodley Bruce William Woodley (born 25 July 1942) is an Australian singer-songwriter and musician. He was a founding member of the successful folk-pop group the Seekers, and co-composer of the songs " I Am Australian," "Red Rubber Ball," and Simon & G ...

of the Australian pop group

the Seekers The Seekers were an Australian folk music, folk-influenced pop music, pop group originally formed in Melbourne in 1962. They were the first Australian pop music group to achieve major chart and sales success in the United Kingdom and the Unit ...

praised the song's guitar work as beautiful while questioning why the song was not popular in the United Kingdom. Writing about the song decades later, author Charles Winick considers "Rain on the Roof" melody and lyrics as having more in common with the music of decades earlier than contemporary

rock music Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdo ...

Charts

Notes

References

Citations

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

* {{Authority control 1966 singles 1966 songs The Lovin' Spoonful songs The Flying Pickets songs Songs written by John Sebastian Song recordings produced by Erik Jacobsen Kama Sutra Records singles Songs about weather