B.J. Thomas, “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” (1969) Music: Burt Bacharach Lyrics: Hal David “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” is B.J. Thomas’s first song, written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach for the 1969 film “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (directed by George Roy Hill, written by William Goldman, starring Paul Neuman and Robert Redford). It won an Academy Award for Best Original Song. David and Bacharach also won Best Original Score. The single by B. J. Thomas reached #1 on charts in the United States, Canada, and Norway. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks in January 1970 and was also the first American number-one hit of the 1970s. Director George Roy Hill wanted something evocative of the period for a particular scene where Newman takes a romantic bike ride with Katherine Ross. Though Hill was initially opposed to the idea of a pop song with a lyric, Bacharach talked him into it. The day before he was to record the song, a road-weary Thomas was warned by his doctor not to sing. “I had come off a two-week tour and had laryngitis and was barely able to eke out the thing for the soundtrack,” Thomas recalls. He struggled through five takes before Bacharach was satisfied. An exec from 20th Century Fox at the recording session congratulated Thomas on how much his raspy voice sounded like Paul Newman’s. The film version featured a separate instrumental break when Paul Newman undertook stunts on a bicycle.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Jul 2013 20:58:11 +0000
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