Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head
“Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” is a song written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach for the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It won an Academy Award for Best Original Song. David and Bacharach also won Best Original Score. The song was recorded by B. J. Thomas in seven takes, after Bacharach expressed dissatisfaction with the first six. In the film version of the song, Thomas had been recovering from laryngitis, which made his voice sound hoarser than in the 7-inch release. The film version featured a separate vaudeville-style instrumental break in double time while Paul Newman performed bicycle stunts.
The single by B. J. Thomas reached number 1 on charts in the United States, Canada, Norway and reached number 38 in the UK Singles Chart. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks in January 1970 and was also the first American number-one hit of the 1970s. The song also spent seven weeks atop the Billboard adult contemporary chart. Billboard ranked it as the No. 4 song of 1970. According to Billboard magazine, Thomas’ single had sold over 2 million copies by March 14, 1970, with eight-track and cassette versions also climbing the charts.
Ray Stevens was first offered the opportunity to record it for the film, but turned it down. He chose instead to record the song “Sunday Morning Coming Down”, written by Kris Kristofferson. Bob Dylan is supposed to have been approached for the song, but he, too, reportedly declined. The trumpet solos in the song are performed by Chuck Findlay.
In 2004, it finished at number 23 on AFI’s 100 Years…100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema. In 2008, the single was ranked 85th on Billboard’s Hot 100 All-Time Top Songsand placed 95th in the 55th Anniversary edition of the All-Time Hot 100 list in 2013. Billboard Mag