“The Rain, the Park and Other Things” (The Cowsills)

Yesterday’s Classic Song of the Day was Billy Stewart’s “Sitting in the Park,” so it makes sense to stay in the park with today’s song, “The Rain, the Park and Other Things.” The Cowsills released this track in September of 1967 and it rose all the way to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 (and #1 on the Cash Box Top 100).

“The Rain, the Park and Other Things” was written by Artie Kornfield and Steve Duboff. Artie and Steve were also responsible for “We Can Fly” by the Cowsills and “The Pied Piper” for Crispian St. Peters. Artie was a lot more prolific, writing (either on his own or with others) more than 75 Billboard-charting singles, including “I Adore Him” for the Angels and “Dead Man’s Curve” for Jan and Dean. He was also the promoter for the game-changing Woodstock Music Festival in 1969.

The interesting thing about “The Rain, the Park and Other Things” is that while the lyrics mention a park and rain, that particular title phrase is nowhere in the song. In fact, most people know the song for it’s lyric in the chorus and think it’s called “The Flower Girl” or something like that. Apparently that was its original title but MGM Records decided to change the title so it wouldn’t be confused with Scott McKenzie’s “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair),” which was also big around that time.

That rain sound at the beginning of the track? It wasn’t rain, it was the sound of bacon sizzling. The musicians on the track were a bunch of New York studio cats, including Vinnie Bell, Charles Macy, and Al Gorgoni on guitar; Joe Macho on bass; Artie Butler on organ; Paul Griffin on piano; and Buddy Saltzman on drums. (Buddy played on all the big Four Seasons hits in the ’60s.)

The Cowsills were a family group from Rhode Island a few years before the Osmonds and the Jacksons made that sort of thing semi-hip. They were the inspiration for the fictional Partridge Family, led by mother Barbara and including siblings Bill, Bob, Barry, John, Paul, and Susan. Bill sang lead on “The Rain, the Park and Other Things” and most of their hits. Those hits included “We Can Fly” (#21 in 1968), “Indian Lake (#10 in 1968), and “Hair” (#2 in 1969).

The group the Cowsills more or less broke up in 1972, although various permutations of that rather large family came back together from time to time to perform or record. Sadly, three of the Cowsills have passed away: mother Barbara in 1985 at age 56, Barry in 2005 at 51, and William in 2006 at 58.