I Wish It Would Rain

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"I Wish It Would Rain"

Single by The Temptations
from the album The Temptations Wish It Would Rain
Released	December 21, 1967
Format	7" single
Recorded	Hitsville USA (Studio A); April 22 & August 31, 1967
Genre	Soul
Length	2:53
Label	Gordy G 7068
Writer(s)	Norman Whitfield Barrett Strong Roger Penzabene
Producer(s)	Norman Whitfield
Chart positions
#4 (US Pop Singles) #1 (US R&B Singles)
The Temptations singles chronology
"(Loneliness Made Me Realize) It's You That I Need" (1967)	"I Wish It Would Rain" (1967)	"I Could Never Love Another (After Loving You)" (1968)

"I Wish It Would Rain", released December 21, 1967, is a 1968 hit single recorded by The Temptations for the Gordy (Motown) label and produced by Norman Whitfield.

1 Overview
2 Credits
3 Sample
4 Notes
5 External links

[edit] Overview

The song is one of the most melancholy in the Temptations repertoire, with lead singer David Ruffin delivering, in a pained voice, the story of a heartbroken man who wants to hide his sorrow. His woman has just left him, and he wishes that it would start raining, to hide the tears falling down his face because "a man ain't supposed to cry." Accompaning Ruffin's mourning vocal are the vocals his bandmates Eddie Kendricks, Melvin Franklin, Paul Williams, and Otis Williams, the subdued instrumentation of The Funk Brothers studio band, and, courtesy of Whitfield, sound effects depicting the "sunshine and blue skies" and rain described in the song. Producer Norman Whitfield devised much of the musical structure of the song, with former Motown artist Barrett Strong composing the song's singature piano intro on a piano with only ten working keys.^[1] Motown staff writer Roger Penzabene provided the song's lyrics.

More so than a number of other Motown songs, there is real sentiment and pain behind the song's words. Lyricist Penzabene had just found out his wife was cheating on him with another man. Unable to deal with the pain and unable to stop loving his wife, Penzabene expressed his pain in the lyrics of this song and its follow-up on the Temptations release schedule, "I Could Never Love Another (After Loving You)". The distraught Penzabene committed suicide on New Year's Eve 1967, a week after the single's release.

Issued with the Melvin Franklin-led "I Truly, Truly Believe" as its b-side, "I Wish It Would Rain" peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100, and reached the number-one position on the Billboard R&B Singles chart. The single was the focal point of the Temptations' 1968 album The Temptations Wish It Would Rain. "I Wish It Would Rain" has been covered by a number of artists, including Gladys Knight & the Pips, Aretha Franklin, and The Faces, whose 1973 cover was a hit in the United Kingdom.