“Laughter in the Rain” (Neil Sedaka)

Your classic pop song of the day is “Laughter in the Rain” by Neil Sedaka. This beautiful little song was released in late 1974 and hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on February 1, 1975. It also hit #1 on the Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart, as well as the Cash Box Hot 100.

Neil Sedaka has had two musical lives. Back in the late ’50s/early ’60s he had a string of hits, including “Oh! Carol” (#9 in 1959, written about his high school classmate, future singer/songwriter superstar Carole King), “Stairway to Heaven” (#9 in 1960, but not the Led Zeppelin tune), “Calendar Girl” (#4 in 1961), “Little Devil” (#11 in 1961), “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen” (#6 in 1961), “Breaking Up is Hard to Do” (#1 in 1962), and “Next Door to an Angel” (#5 in 1962). All of these tunes were co-written with partner Howard Greenfield; Neil did the music, Howie supplied the words. They also wrote some tunes made famous by others, including “Stupid Cupid” and “Where the Boys Are” (both recorded by Connie Francis, hitting #14 and #4 in 1958 and 1961, respectively), “Workin’ on a Groovy Thing” (#20 for the 5th Dimension in 1969), and “Solitaire” (#17 for the Carpenters in 1975).

Unfortunately, Neil’s career as a recording artist pretty much ended in 1963 with the advent of the Beatles and the British Invasion. While his songs were melodically and harmonically a cut above most of the Brill Building output in the early ’60s (Neil is classically trained and knows his music theory inside and out; listening to him talk about his music is fascinating), it just sounded of a different era once Lennon and McCartney, along with Mr. Bob Dylan, changed the musical landscape. While Sedaka still did okay as a performing artist, nobody thought they’d hear Neil on the radio again. Until…

In the early ’70s, Neil reemerged to record two albums on the RCA label. Although they didn’t spawn any hits (for him, anyway; “Solitaire” came from his second RCA album), it did reintroduce him to the industry. He got further notice by penning “Love Will Keep Us Together,” yesterday’s Classic Song of the Day, which was a huge hit for the Captain and Tennille in 1975. (The song was notably prophetic with its out chorus claiming to all the world, quite correctly, “Sedaka is back!”). Around this time Neil and Howie Greenfield parted ways and Mr. S got a new lyricist in the form of Phil Cody. Their first major collaboration was “Laughter in the Rain,” which kicked off Neil’s second life.

Although some hipper critics have dismissed it as pop pablum, I find “Laughter in the Rain” a remarkable tune and very representative of Mr. Sedaka’s musical sophistication. The melody is largely pentatonic, inspired by the wide open melody of Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Modern Man.” The verse is in the key of F, cleverly modulating to Ab in the chorus. The large vocal jump after “I feel the warmth of her hand in mine” (C major chord) to “Oh, I hear laughter in the rain” (Bbm7 chord) is also distinctive; the melody jumps a minor sixth, from C to Ab, with that Ab being the minor 7th of the new Bbm7 chord. Like I said, pretty sophisticated stuff, definitely not your usual three chords and a cloud of dust.

The track was also a quality recording. Neil recruited the cream of mid-70s West Coast studio musicians to provide backup, those cats known as the Section—Danny Kortchmar on electric guitar, Leland Sklar on bass, and the legendary Russ Kunkel on drums. Fellow session ace Dean Parks played acoustic guitar, Jim Horn supplied the brief but important tenor sax solo, and the stellar string arrangement was by industry veteran Artie Butler. Neil himself played piano.

“Laughter in the Rain” was big during my junior year in high school; you couldn’t turn on the radio without hearing it. To be honest, it was good to have Sedaka back, even if the tune did seem a bit of a throwback at the time. It holds up well today.

The success of “Laughter in the Rain” led to a new string of hits for Mr. S, including “The Immigrant” (#22 in 1975), “Bad Blood” (#1 in 1975, with guest vocalist and friend Elton John), and a ballad remake of his 1962 hit, “Breaking Up is Hard to Do” (#8 in 1975). Since then, Neil has been a fixture on the oldies circuit and continues to perform today. The 84 year-old Mr. Sedaka also does a monthly program for SiriusXM satellite radio, titled In the Key of Neil. It’s worth listening to.