In this section I'm going to look at songs which share the same subject matter. They can end up being all from one genre or right across the spectrum, which may make it a little more interesting. I'll be choosing my favourite songs with that theme, though of course there will almost certainly be many more with the same subject matter. Certain “universal” themes will not be explored, such as love, girls, cars, drinking etc, as I feel these are too broad to be included.
The first subject, or theme, to be featured is that of RAIN.
We kick off with one of my favourite bands, and a cover version of a very old song. This has of course been covered by many bands, including Crystal Gayle, Art Garfunkel and Mickey Dolenz. Originally recorded and made famous by the Everley Brothers, it was co-written by songstress Carole King. This is A-Ha's version of “Crying in the rain”, from their “East of the sun, west of the moon” album.
Next up, a true classic from a band whose classic songs outnumber virtually anyone else you can mention. Mention a song by Creedence Clearwater Revival and the chances are it's a classic. This most certainly is, from 1970, this is “Who'll stop the rain?”
One of my favourite bands, ELO, the Electric Light Orchestra. I could have gone for something off the “Concerto for a rainy day” on “Out of the blue”, which is written all about weather, but I wanted to be a little less predictable, so instead I've decided to take this track, from their “Time” album, and a track called “Rain is falling”.
Journey always pen a lovely ballad, and this has added rain and thunderstorm noises on it, so it just had to be included. From the album “Trial by fire”, it's called “It's just the rain”.
Another of my favourite bands, but one few know of, this is Ten from their album “Babylon”, and a gorgeous little ballad called “Silent rain”.
A more upbeat song now, from the great Elkie Brooks, with her version of “Sunshine after the rain”.
And no rain selection would be complete without ol' Phil's song, from “But seriously”, his last album before he went all crap, this is “I wish it would rain down”, with a very funny video.
Not forgetting his good mate and former Genesis bandmate, Peter Gabriel, with his own take on rain, from “So”, this is “Red rain”.
I was never a big Leo Sayer fan, but you can't fault the quality of a classic like his cover of Buddy Holly's “Raining in my heart”!
And of course, we couldn't close without the king of all rain songs, the one everyone thinks of when you say “give me a title of a song about rain”. The one and only Gene Kelly with “Singin' in the rain”. I wanted to get the proper video, but they only have that colourised rubbish on YT, so instead I went for another screen icon doing his version. This is Paddington Bear, with vocals by Gene Kelly. Enjoy!