Billboard's Forever No. 1 series pays tribute to B.J. Thomas’ chart-topping “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head.'
But songs often seem to wind up where they’re meant to. In all likelihood, no one would have done a better job on the song than Thomas. His easygoing style fused pop, country and folk in a way that made it perfect for this plucky, folksy tune.
Thomas, who was 28 when he recorded the song that made him a household name, died on May 29 at age 78 from complications due to stage four lung cancer. Thomas was recovering from a bout of laryngitis in 1969 when he recorded the soundtrack version of “Raindrops.” As a result, his vocal is a bit raspier and huskier than it was on the single version he recorded weeks later. Bacharach, a notorious perfectionist, asked Thomas to record seven takes before he was satisfied with the vocal for the film version.
For the single version, Bacharach added a snazzy, 30-second instrumental outro which introduced some rhythmic tension and made the song a better fit for top 40 playlists of the era. “Raindrops” also has a – later echoed by a trumpet solo following the same tune -- which provided vital variation in a song mostly built around a simple, sing-songy melody.
The song reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 in the issue dated Jan. 3, 1970, making it the first No. 1 hit of the 1970s. It logged 13 weeks in the top 10 -- the longest stay by any single in the nearly five-year period between
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