“Walking in the Rain” (The Ronettes/Jay and the Americans)

After yesterday’s “Laughing in the Rain,” by Neil Sedaka, today’s rain-themed classic song of the day is “Walking in the Rain.” This one was a hit twice for two different groups—the Ronettes and Jay and the Americans.

“Walking in the Rain” was written by two of my favorite Brill Building songwriters, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil (with a third credit for Phil Spector, just because he needed the royalties). It’s a less aggressive song than most of the Ronettes’ other tunes, such as “Be My Baby” and “Baby I Love You,” just a nice mellow walk in the rain dreaming about being in love.

The Ronettes’ version of “Walking in the Train” was released in October of 1964 and was the group’s last big hit, reaching #23 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #3 on the R&B Singles Chart. According to Ronnie Spector’s own account, she aced her vocals in just a single take. As the singer recalled in a 2016 interview:

“They (Mann, Weil, and Spector) were writing it while we were in London. When I came back, I told them I loved the English rain and fog—we had to stop the tour bus with the Stones to wait for the fog to lift. When it came to the vocal, I went in the booth, closed my eyes and—boom! I said, ‘Shall I do it again?’ And they said, ‘No, that was it.'”

Ronnie’s one-take vocals were spot on, of course. Her voice has just the right amount of longing, which you can hear in her “whoa whoa whoa.” The way her voice rises on “the things he’ll like to do” just makes my heart swell.

The opening sound effect of the rainstorm won engineer Larry Levine a Grammy nomination. The normal Wrecking Crew, including the ubiquitous Hal Blaine on drums, supplied the backing instrumentals. And among the background singers? A young lady who used to hang around the studio with her boyfriend, who was a gofer for Phil Spector. The young lady’s name was Cher—and her boyfriend was a guy named Sonny.

The Ronettes’ recording of “Walking in the Rain” is a terrific track and arguably the most famous version, but I’m actually partial to the 1969 remake by Jay and the Americans. Their version ranked a tad higher than the original, hitting #19 on the Billboard Hot 100, #8 on the Easy Listening chart, and #14 on the Cash Box Top 100. Jay’s version is remarkably faithful to the original but has its own late-60s charm. You can almost hear the corduroy bell bottoms brushing by.

It’s possible that I like the latter version best because that’s the first version I heard. (It was released when I just starting to seriously listen to the radio, in sixth grade.) I also dig the promo video, which is so very perfectly 1969 in its cool hipnosity. Honestly, how can you not dig this song? Just put it on repeat and listen to it all day long.

Ronnie Spector lived a long and glorious life, gaining more respect from music lovers as the years went by. She passed away just last year, at age 78. Singer Jay Black, of Jay and the Americans, fronted that group until 2006 and passed away in 2021, aged 82. Songwriters Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil kept writing hit songs for decades and are still with us, both in their 80s.