JANE MORGAN ‘ ‘The Day The Rains Came’
(23rd January 1959)
And because the pop charts aren’t a nice smooth story what happened next was this! A stern and hearty pop ballad which starts off on a nature tip - ‘The day that the rains came down / Mother Earth smiled again’. This is a good thing not for feed-the-world reasons but because it allows Jane to connect plants growing with her love. Which is also growing. Jane and beau then walk Adam-and-Evely through a new (and probably damp) Eden of lilies, willows and meadows. The serpent in paradise? A hip-twitching trumpet line that seems to have wandered in from a Connie Francis record. 3
(POP FACT! Why did this song get to No.1? Well, who knows, but apparently January 1959 was the sunniest since records began, and February that year one of the driest on record. That’s ’sunny’ and ‘dry’ by English standards, of course.)
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John Frye on October 16th, 2006
For some reason, I always loved that song. Even now when I think about that tune, it brings back the great memories of my ‘50 Olds coupe (it had a great radio; tube set in those days!) and cruising back roads with a girlfriend. Growing up on the Oregon coast was mostly rain anyway….. Aaaah hell, those days are gone and so is the Olds coupe and the pretty girls.
tim davidge on March 6th, 2008
Effectively a throwback to the middle of the decade, this record is (as far as I am aware) the first No.1 of Gallic origin since “Poor People of Paris (Poor John)” in 1956. It comes from the pen of Gilbert Bécaud, with whom the British record buying public would have a fleeting acquaintance rather later on. Although it’s not a modern record even by the standards of 1958/59, it’s a cheerful effort, and I liked it well enough to get hold of a copy at a record fair when one turned up. Turning the record over gets you the same song in French.
Mark G on March 7th, 2008
yeah, 3 being way too low.
Marcello Carlin on March 7th, 2008
It only got to number one in the NME chart.