"It's Raining Again" is a song recorded by the English progressive rock band Supertramp and released as a single from their 1982 album …Famous Last Words… with credits given to Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson, although as indicated on the album sleeve, it is a Hodgson composition.[Note 1] The end of the song incorporates the old nursery rhyme "It's Raining, It's Pouring".
| "It's Raining Again" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Supertramp | ||||
| from the album ...Famous Last Words... | ||||
| B-side | "Bonnie" | |||
| Released | 22 October 1982 | |||
| Genre | Soft rock | |||
| Length | 4:24 | |||
| Label | A&M | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Rick Davies, Roger Hodgson | |||
| Producer(s) | Supertramp, Peter Henderson | |||
| Supertramp singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Music video | ||||
| "It's Raining Again" on YouTube | ||||
Hodgson said:
I wrote "It’s Raining Again" on a day when I was feeling sad because I’d lost a friend. I was in England looking outside the window and it was pouring rain and literally, the song came to me. I started playing these chords on this pump organ and I just started singing "It’s Raining Again."[1]
Music video edit
The music video was directed by Russell Mulcahy and conceptualized by Keith Williams. A man drives a beat-up convertible through a dust storm to a small town cafe to bring a bouquet to his girlfriend, who is a waitress there. A co-worker hands him a Dear John letter. After having his parked car ticketed for heading the wrong way, he spends a forgettable night at the Pickwick Drive-In movie "Famous Last Words" (reminding viewers about Supertramp's album), seeing himself on the film, watching another couple embrace in the car next to his, and meeting a small child with silver teeth, who points out that his car's left rear wheel is missing.
The next day the man, now on the street outside the cafe without his car, kisses the young girl, leaves the bouquet with her, and with his suitcase boards a bus to downtown Los Angeles. He is greeted by a guitar-playing passenger, then an uninterested cowboy props his long legs onto the seat in front of him, next to a lady putting on lipstick and wearing a white wig that receives a paper airplane thrown by another passenger. Awakened by the driver at the station, the man, now the last passenger still on the bus, finds himself without anything in his pockets, presumably having been robbed, but still with his suitcase. He thumbs down two rednecks in a pickup truck, who find him easy pickings for practical jokes, pitch him onto Hollywood Boulevard, and throw his suitcase onto him. After a short walk, encountering more rough people, the man suffers a back alley beating in which he is stripped to his underwear and robbed of his suitcase. An old lady gives him an orange umbrella just before rain begins to drench the alley. In spite of a sea of black umbrellas, he accidentally runs into his true love, who is under a yellow umbrella, and the two embrace and dance together in the rain. The sea of black umbrellas disappears. This final encounter is what had appeared and now appears at the end of the aforementioned drive-in movie. As the camera pulls back, the couple in the convertible now has two children in the back seat while the song fades out with the children's nursery rhyme "it's raining, it's pouring..."
The five members of Supertramp all appear in the video. At the beginning, John Helliwell is a street musician playing an alto saxophone. Before the first chorus, Dougie Thomson appears as the bus driver (this was the last filmed video where Thomson would appear with his then trademark moustache and beard). Hodgson plays the guitar-playing bus passenger. Lastly, Rick Davies and Bob Siebenberg play the two pickup truck rednecks.
Reception edit
Cash Box said it is "vintage Supertramp with all of the elements that have made the group’s sound so distinctive" and that it is "bouncy and hook-laden."[2]Billboard called it a "lush midtempo charmer."[3]
The song debuted at No. 31 on 30 October 1982 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the second highest debut on that chart for all of 1982 (exceeded only by "Ebony and Ivory" at No. 29 on 10 April 1982), but it only peaked at No. 11, making it one of the few songs to enter the chart in the Top 40 but not reach the Top 10.[4]
Hodgson rated it as one of the top 10 songs he ever wrote.[1]
Track listings edit
7-inch vinyl edit
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "It's Raining Again" | 4:25 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Bonnie" | 5:37 |
Personnel edit
Charts edit
| Chart (1982–1983) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia (Kent Music Report)[5] | 11 |
| Austrian Singles Chart[6] | 7 |
| Canada RPM Adult Contemporary[7] | 1 |
| Canadian RPM Singles Chart[8] | 4 |
| Dutch GfK Charts[9] | 6 |
| Dutch Top 40[10] | 6 |
| France (SNEP)[11] | 1 |
| German Singles Chart[12] | 3 |
| Irish Singles Chart[13] | 16 |
| New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[14] | 19 |
| Norwegian Singles Chart[15] | 6 |
| South Africa[16] | 6 |
| Swiss Singles Chart[17] | 2 |
| UK Singles Chart[18] | 26 |
| US Billboard Hot 100[19] | 11 |
| US Billboard Adult Contemporary[19] | 5 |
| US Billboard Mainstream Rock[19] | 7 |
| US Cash Box Top 100[20] | 7 |
Certifications edit
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Canada (Music Canada)[21] | Gold | 50,000^ |
|
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||
Notes edit
- ^ Like John Lennon and Paul McCartney of The Beatles, Hodgson and Davies joined writer's credits from 1974 until 1983, when Hodgson left the band to pursue a solo career.
References edit
- ^ a b Hodgson, Roger (20 March 2023). "Supertramp's Roger Hodgson: the 10 best songs I've written". Prog. Louder Sound. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
- ^ "Reviews" (PDF). Cash Box. 30 October 1982. p. 8. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
- ^ "Top Single Picks". Billboard. 30 October 1982. p. 66. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
- ^ "Chartbeat". Billboard. 8 January 1983. p. 73. Retrieved 31 May 2014.
- ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
- ^ "Supertramp – It's Raining Again – austriancharts.at". Retrieved 22 February 2009.
- ^ "Item Display – RPM – Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. 15 January 1983. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
- ^ "Top Singles – Volume 37, No. 18, December 18, 1982". RPM. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
- ^ "dutchcharts.nl – Supertramp – It's Raining Again". Retrieved 22 February 2009.
- ^ "De Nederlandse Top 40, week 47, 1982". Archived from the original on 2 March 2009. Retrieved 22 February 2009.
- ^ "Supertramp – It's Raining Again" (in French). Les classement single. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
- ^ "charts-surfer.de search results". Retrieved 22 February 2009.
- ^ "irishcharts.ie search results". Archived from the original on 26 January 2010. Retrieved 22 February 2009.
- ^ "Supertramp – It's Raining Again". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
- ^ "norwegiancharts.com – Supertramp – It's Raining Again". Archived from the original on 2 March 2009. Retrieved 22 February 2009.
- ^ "South African Charts 1965-1989".
- ^ "Supertramp – It's Raining Again – hitparade.ch". Retrieved 22 February 2009.
- ^ "The Official Charts Company – Supertramp – It's Raining Again". Official Charts. Retrieved 22 February 2009.
- ^ a b c "allmusic – Supertramp – Billboard singles". Retrieved 22 February 2009.
- ^ "Cash Box Top 100 Singles, January 15, 1983". Archived from the original on 3 June 2015. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
- ^ "Canadian single certifications – Supertramp – It's Raining Again". Music Canada.
