Like poets and painters, composers have long been inspired by rain. But what is striking is the sheer emotional range of their musical responses. Some see rain as intrinsically melancholic, or even sinister. For others, a downpour is something worth celebrating. Here are eight of the best examples of songs about rain.
Best songs about rain
Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head
The American composer Burt Bacharach and lyricist Hal David wrote many hits together before they ended up suing each other. This little song about rain, written for the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, ranks amongst the most famous, describing someone who overcomes his troubles and worries by realising that ‘it won’t be long until happiness steps up to greet me.’ Exuberant and optimistic as it is, it has provided many a film and TV show with a feel-good moment, not least Forrest Gump and The Simpsons.
We named Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head as one of the 15 best film songs of all time
Eternal Father, Strong to Save (Noye's Fludde)
Benjamin Britten’s one-act opera for amateurs and children is full of atmospheric effects, many of them generated from the most ingeniously homespun of means. This scene, in which the naval hymn "Eternal Father, Strong to Save” is sung to the accompanying sound of a storm, is a prime example. Slung mugs struck with a wooden spoon give the sound of the first raindrops. Trills in the recorders represent the wind, while the percussion impersonates thunder and lightning.
Spring Rain
Though not one of his most frequently performed works, this song about rain from Edvard Grieg’s Op.49 is highly evocative. It features an expressive vocal line accompanied by falling chords which imitate the raindrops as they drop through a cascade of trees. Meanwhile, the lyrics, by the Danish poet and dramatist paint a similarly vivid picture. One of those numbers in which music and lyrics coalesce perfectly to make for one of the best and most evocative songs about rain.
I'm Singin' in the Rain
You didn’t think we’d forget this one did you? This ditty about rain that inspired the name of the timeless musical film is synonymous with escapism: who can listen to it without picturing Gene Kelly sploshing joyfully around in puddles? To listen to ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ is to be transported to a bygone era of tap dancing, silent movies and vintage Hollywood glamour - laced with a whopper shot of optimism. No wonder audiences keep coming back to it more than seventy years since the film’s release.
More best songs about rain
Canticle III: 'Still Falls the Rain'
Another Britten contribution here - this one based on a poem by Edith Sitwell. The text, written after the raids on London in 1940, speaks of the failure of man.
As for the music: with its mournful interplay between horn, tenor and piano, it’s as dark as anything Britten ever wrote, sharing its structure with his opera Turn of the Screw, as well as its intensely spooky atmosphere. Britten had many diverse musical gifts: turns out that, among others, he was able to pen some of the best and most atmospheric songs about rain.
The Storm Aria (Filumena)
A favourite among 21st-century Canadian opera-lovers, John Estacio’s 2003 Filumena tells the story of tells the story of Filumena Lassandro, the last woman to be hanged in Alberta. As you can imagine, it is pretty hard-hitting stuff. This aria, commonly called ‘The Storm Aria’ is one of its most dramatic moments.
Come Rain or Come Shine
First featured in the Broadway musical St. Louis Woman, this 1946 hit was written by the composer Harold Arlen and lyricist Johnny Mercer. But it was Ray Charles’s 1959 version that really struck a chord with the public. Its deep emotional resonance won the day. It's truly one of the most best and most moving songs about rain in the canon.
Sung from the viewpoint of someone who promises to love and stay with their partner through good times and bad, it is simple yet poignant. That explains why scores of singers, including Billie Holiday, Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra, have covered it.
And the last in our list of best songs about rain is...
Storm Scene (Rigoletto)
Sparafucile, the hitman, is preparing to assassinate the duke. His sister, Maddalena, who is smitten with the Duke, begs Sparafucile to spare his life. Overhearing the conversation, Gilda resolves to take the Duke’s place and sacrifice herself for him.
As she crosses the threshold to meet her gruesome fate, a thunderstorm passes overhead. This punctuates vocal lines with orchestral flashes of lightning and crashes of thunder. Commenting on this scene from Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto, the composer and professor of experimental music Dieter Schnebel (1930–2018) wrote:
‘The furtive encounters between people in the darkness, irregularly broken by lightning, are exposed by the empty fifths, the tremolos of strings, the brief breakthroughs of the wind instruments, the thunderclaps and the sinister sighs of the chorus.’ All of which amounts to one of the most powerful moments in opera.
