Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head

Bacharach and David composed the song for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Director George Roy Hill wanted something for a particular scene involving a romantic bike ride. Carol Kaye played electric bass on the song. B. J. Thomas accepted the offer to record the song, and he recorded the version heard in the film in seven takes, after Bacharach expressed dissatisfaction with the first six. Thomas had been recovering from laryngitis, which made his voice sound huskier. The film version featured a separate vaudeville-style instrumental break in double time while Paul Newman performed bicycle stunts. Two weeks later Thomas re-recorded the song at A & R Studio in New York City for its single release. ==Reception==

Some felt the song was the wrong tone for a western film like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but Hill insisted on its inclusion. Robert Redford, one of the stars of the film, was among those who disapproved of using the song, though he later acknowledged he was wrong: ==Legacy==

for her work on "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" 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 Songs and placed 95th in the 55th Anniversary edition of the All-Time Hot 100 list in 2013. Billboard Magazine also ranked the song 15th on its Top 50 Movie Songs of All Time list in 2014. On December 3, 2013, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences announced that the single would be inducted into the 2014 Grammy Hall of Fame. ==Chart performance==

Weekly singles charts Year-end charts All-time charts ==Certifications and sales==

• It was mentioned in a candidate's name in the ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' Election Night Special sketch in the "It's a Living" episode in 1970. • The song is used in the background of a montage in Spider-Man 2, where Peter Parker decides to opt out of being a superhero after he loses his powers. • The song is used extensively throughout Hideo Kojima's 2025 video game Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, both as non-diegetic background music in scenes and being sung by characters in-universe. • The song (the Bobbie Gentry version specifically) plays during Final Destination Bloodlines during the premonition scene. ==Cover versions==

• In 1970, the song was covered by Roy Ayers, with his group the Roy Ayers Ubiquity, on their album Ubiquity, as the second track. • Peggy Lee on her album Bridge Over Troubled Water, released by Capitol Records. • Barbara Mason, whose cover reached U.S. Bubbling Under number 12 and R&B number 38. • John Farnham, whose version was the number-one hit (for seven weeks) in Australia on the Go-Set National Top 40 from January 24 to March 13. • Bobbie Gentry, from her album Fancy, which reached number 40 in the UK chart. • Swedish singer Siw Malmkvist in Swedish as "Regnet, det bara öser ner" (The rain just pours down). It peaked at #5 in the Swedish best selling chart "Kvällstoppen". • Dionne Warwick, for the album ''I'll Never Fall in Love Again''. • In 1973, the Barry Sisters covered the song in a Yiddish version ("Trop'ns Fin Regen Oif Mein Kop") on their album Our Way. • The 1995 cover version by Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers is credited with adding greater nuance to the song, the Financial Times citing their recording as transforming the song from carefree optimism to "an exhortation to keep going in the face of tragedy", and noting that singer James Dean Bradfield's voice "added grit to the facile lyric". The group often spent their downtime on the tour bus watching the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and incorporated the song into live sets. After the disappearance of lyricist Richey Edwards, the band decided to continue rather than split up. Having booked studio time in France to record their fourth album, Everything Must Go (1996), they were invited to record for the War Child charity album The Help Album (1995). The project required all songs to be recorded in one day. While band biographer Simon Price has described the recording and release of the record as a "coded message" that the band still existed, Bradfield recalls the events differently: "...us putting it out wasn't planned as us saying 'We're OK, guys!', but the deadline was the next day after we'd arrived in this place, for some kind of new beginning." • in 1998, Ben Folds Five took part in Bacharach's 'One Amazing Night' tribute concert and covered the song. • Lisa Miskovsky covered the song in the extended version of her self-titled (2004) album. • Mel Torme covered the song as the title track of his Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head 1969 studio album. • Johnny Mathis covered the song on his album Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head. ==See also==