#043 Ben Folds Five - Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head

Original by B.J. Thomas (click)

"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, winning an Academy Award for Best Original Song. David and Bacharach also won Best Original Score. The version by B. J. Thomas was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States in January 1970 for four weeks and the first number-one single of the 1970s. It also spent seven weeks atop the U.S. adult contemporary chart.^[1]

The song was recorded in seven takes, after Bacharach expressed dissatisfaction with the first six.

Ray Stevens had been first offered the opportunity to record the song for the motion picture, but turned it down. He chose instead to record "Sunday Morning Coming Down," which was written by Kris Kristofferson.Bob Dylan is also supposed to have been approached for the song, but he too reportedly turned down the offer.^[2]

The song is featured in the Leslie Nielsen movie Spy Hard, which parodies the scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid where the song plays. It also is featured on the soundtracks of Forrest Gump and thesuperhero film, Spider-Man 2, in the latter accentuating Peter Parker's blissful mood after abandoning his Spider-Man identity and its responsibilities. Most recently it was used in the Kevin Smith film Clerks II. It was also sung in The Simpsons episode, "Duffless". Also, the first episode of the second season from Grey's Anatomy is named after the song.

B.J. Thomas's version was listed at #12 on Billboard's Greatest Songs of all time.[1]