The Seventies Very First Number One Hit

Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head

1969

B.J.Thomas

The primary focus of this blog's the songs of The Seventies, and that being the case we gotta answer the question 'Just where and when did The Seventies start?...Musically speaking of course. What was the first hit song of The Seventies (And what was the last.)

B. J. Thomas...who had a string of well known and well loved hits in the sixties and seventies...grabbed that very first Billboard Hot 100 Number 1 hit of the 70s with a song written for a hit movie in 1969. The song was Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head, and the movie was Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, which as we may recall had some small success itself...with a shade over 100 million dollars at the box office, it was that year's top grossing film

Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head was written specifically for the movie by Hal Davis and Burt Bacharach and B. J. Thomas was not the first person they offered the song to. They first took it to Ray Stevens, who turned it down in favor of singing a Kris Kristofferson tune named 'Sunday Morning Coming Down'. After he rejected it they offered it to Bob Dylan who also turned it down. Third time's a charm...after some persuasion they then offered it to B. J. Thomas who sang it for a movie, and a classic was born. You may have heard of the lady who did the persuading too, BTW...Lady by the name of Dionne Warwick. It ended up being a good decision by everyone involved. Not only did the song become a huge hit (And ultimately a beloved classic) it also won the Oscar for Best Original Song Form a Motion Picture in 1970.

It was recorded in seven takes, and the movie version of the song, and the version heard on the 45RPM single are somewhat different. B.J.Thomas was recovering from laryngitis when he recorded the song for the movie, giving his voice a huskier, more raspy quality than it has in the single and an instrumental break was added when Paul Newman was doing the bicycle stunts for the movie scene. The single was recorded seven weeks after the movie version, released in October 1969, hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on January 3^rd 1970, and stayed there the whole month. Even after dropping out of the top spot, it stayed on the Hot 100 for another 18 weeks.

The first time I heard it was while watching Butch Cassidy at the old Lyons State theater in Franklin Virginia, and if I had a dollar for every time I've heard it since I would have probably paid off my car with some change left over. 'Raindrops Keep Falling' On My Head' has become a part of American Music History, and is one of those songs that everyone likes (Whether they admit it or not...I've heard sworn Metal-heads humming along with it on the radio at work...Hey, don't no one touch my Oldies when I'm at work! ;)

Ya can't help but get a smile on your face when you hear that classic ukelele intro!

So Enjoy! (Don't even think about saying ya didn't sing along with it! ;) )

Raindrops Keep Falling On my Head, by B J. Thomas

 As a Bonus...the scene from Butch Cassidey and The Sundance Kid.