Our next classic rain-themed song of the day is “In the Rain” by the Dramatics. This silky smooth slice of seventies soul was released as a single in February of 1972 and hit #5 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also spent four weeks at the #1 position on Billboard’s Best Selling Soul Singles chart.
“In the Rain” was written by Tony Hester, a Detroit-based musician. He used to hang out at Hitsville U.S.A., watching producers Holland-Dozier-Holland work their magic. As a songwriter, he wrote tunes that were recorded by the Marvelettes, the Dells, and Marilyn McCoo. He also co-wrote “With This Ring” for the Platters, which is one of my favorite tunes of that era. Regrettably, Tony Hester was shot and killed during a drug deal gone bad in 1980; he was just 34 years old.
The backing tracks for “In the Rain” were played by a team of Detroit studio pros, including three members of Motown’s Funk Brothers—pianist Johnny Griffith, guitarist Dennis Coffey, and drummer Uriel Jones. Coffey used an Echoplex delay unit to create the unique guitar sound on this track.
I’ve always thought the Dramatics were from Philadelphia, because their sound was very much in the Philly Soul groove. I was wrong, however; the group hails from Detroit. They formed as the Sensations, a late-stage doo-wop group, in 1964, changing their name to the Dramatics the next year. They signed with Stax Records in 1968 but only released a single record, which was only moderately successful. Stax dropped them in 1969 but resigned them in 1971, which is when they started to see some success. Their first big hit was “Whatcha See is Whatcha Get” in 1971, followed by “In the Rain” in 1972. That was the end of their mainstream hits, although they placed several other records on the R&B charts.
The Dramatics saw multiple personnel changes over the years. At one point there were two groups touring at the Dramatics; they consolidated into a single group in 2018 and still tour on the oldies circuit.
For today’s daily bonus video of the day, we go back to 1972 and everyone’s favorite Saturday afternoon music show, Don Cornelius’ Soul Train, with the Dramatics lip synching to “In the Rain.” Man, I loved watching Soul Train back then.
