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| “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” | |
|---|---|
| From the motion picture Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid | |
| Single by B. J. Thomas | |
| from the album Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head | |
| B-side | “Never Had It So Good” |
| Released | October 1969 |
| Length | 2:57 |
| Label | Scepter Records |
| Songwriter(s) | Hal David and Burt Bacharach |
| Producer(s) | Hal David and Burt Bacharach |
| B. J. Thomas singles chronology | |
| “Pass the Apple Eve” (1969)”Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” (1969)”Everybody’s Out of Town” (1970) |
“Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” is a song written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach for the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It won an Academy Award for Best Original Song. David and Bacharach also won Best Original Score. The song was recorded by B. J. Thomas in seven takes, after Bacharach expressed dissatisfaction with the first six. In the film version of the song, Thomas had been recovering from laryngitis, which made his voice sound hoarser than in the 7-inch release. The film version featured a separate vaudeville-style instrumental break in double time while Paul Newman performed bicycle stunts.
The single by B. J. Thomas reached No. 1 on charts in the United States, Canada, Norway and reached No. 38 in the UK Singles Chart. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks in January 1970 and was also the first American No. 1 hit of the 1970s. The song also spent seven weeks atop the Billboard adult contemporary chart. Billboard ranked it as the No. 4 song of 1970. According to Billboard magazine, Thomas’ single had sold over 2 million copies by March 14, 1970, with eight-track and cassette versions also climbing the charts.
In 2004, it finished at number 23 on AFI’s 100 Years…100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema. In 2008, the single was ranked 85th on Billboard’s Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs and placed 95th in the 55th Anniversary edition of the All-Time Hot 100 list in 2013. Billboard Magazine also ranked the song 15th on its Top 50 Movie Songs of All Time list in 2014.
The song, initially when it came out, I believe it was October of 69, the movie didn’t come out until December, it did get some bad reviews. It was a very unique and different sounding song, Bacharach and David never had any qualms about trying to do anything different, or push the envelope so to speak. So nowadays, it sounds pretty tame, but back then, radio resisted it to some degree. But, when the movie came out it hit hugely and sold about 200,000 to 300,000 records a day [and continued selling] for about three years.— B.J. Thomas, Interview, Pods o’ Pop (August 22, 2011)
On December 3, 2013, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences announced that the single would be inducted into the 2014 Grammy Hall Of Fame.
The song has been covered numerous times.
Dionne Warwick
Johnny Mathis
Levi Stubbs/Four Tops
Dean Martin
Raindrops keep fallin’ on my head – B.J. Thomas. – instrumental cover by Dave Monk
Watch the movie “Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid”
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