Here Comes the Rain Again

"Here Comes the Rain Again"
Single by Eurythmics
from the album Touch
B-side	"Paint a Rumour"
Released	January 16, 1984
Format	7", 12"
Recorded	1983
Genre	New Wave, Synth Pop
Length	4:56
Label	RCA
Producer	David A. Stewart
Eurythmics singles chronology
"Right By Your Side" (1983) "Here Comes the Rain Again" (1984) "Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four)" (1984)

"Here Comes the Rain Again" is a song by British pop duo Eurythmics. It was written by group members Annie Lennox and David A. Stewart and produced by Stewart. The song was released as the third single in the UK from the album Touch and in the United States as the first single. It became Eurythmics' second Top 10 U.S. hit, peaking at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Here Comes the Rain Again" hit number eight in the UK singles chart, becoming their fifth consecutive Top 10 single in that country.

The track is similar in musical style to past Eurythmics singles and its melancholy lyrics draw a comparison between the painful and tragic feelings of unrequited love with falling rain. Notably, the group adorned the recording with the composition and arrangement skills of Michael Kamen, resulting in more natural feel to the overall finished product (versus the heavily synthetic aesthetic of the Sweet Dreams album and its singles). Stewart explained to Songfacts that creating a melancholy mood in his songs is something he excels at. He said: "'Here Comes The Rain Again' is kind of a perfect one where it has a mixture of things, because I'm playing a b-minor, but then I change it to put a b-natural in, and so it kind of feels like that minor is suspended, or major. So it's kind of a weird course. And of course that starts the whole song, and the whole song was about that undecided thing, like here comes depression, or here comes that downward spiral. But then it goes, 'so talk to me like lovers do.' It's the wandering in and out of melancholy, a dark beauty that sort of is like the rose that's when it's darkest unfolding and bloodred just before the garden, dies. And capturing that in kind of oblique statements and sentiments." ^[1]

The string arrangements by Michael Kamen were performed by members of the British Philharmonic Orchestra. However, due to the limited space in the studio, the Church, the players had to improvise by recording their parts in other parts of the studio. Once the improvisations seem to match the finished synthesized track, the song was mixed by having the orchestral tracks laid down on top of the original backing track. ^[1]

During Eurythmics reunion "Peacetour" they performed an in-studio concert for the A&E Network in the U.S. Dave Stewart revealed that the lyrics to the song came into being after an argument between himself and Lennox while they were doing some songwriting in New York City's Columbus Hotel. The basic melody had already been written and Lennox looked out the window after their fight and noticed it was starting to rain. She announced, "Here comes the rain again."

The running time for "Here Comes the Rain Again" is in actuality about five minutes long and was edited on the Touch album (fading out at approximately four-and-a-half minutes). Although it was edited even further for its single and video release, many U.S. radio stations played the full-length version of it. The entire five-minute version did not appear on any Eurythmics album until the US edition of Greatest Hits in 1991.

Music video

The music video, featuring Lennox and Stewart, was directed by Jonathan Gershfield and released in December 1983, a month before the single came out. The video opens showing The Old man of Hoy on the Island of Hoy in the Orkney Islands, with Lennox walking along the rocky shore and cliff top and later entering a derelict cottage in a nightgown, holding a lantern. In many scenes the two are filmed separately, then superimposed into the same frame. The result is that the viewer may perceive one as being a ghost in the world of the other.

Track listings

7"

• A: "Here Comes the Rain Again" [edited] 3'50
• B: "Paint a rumour" [edited] 4'00

12"

• A: "Here Comes the Rain Again" [full version]* 5'05
• B1: "This City never sleeps" (live San Francisco 83) 5'30
• B2: "Paint a rumour" [full version]* 8'00

* both these versions are longer than the ones found on the "Touch" album

Chart performance

Cover versions

• A dance cover of the song by Sheryl Lee Ralph was released in 1999 through Trax Records.^[2]
• Alternative synth pop group The Crüxshadows recorded a cover of the song for their 1999 EP Until the Voices Fade....
• Fame Academy winner Alex Parks included a rendition of the song on her debut album Introduction from 2003.
• The song was covered in a modern rock style by American indie band The Drama Club (from northeastern Pennsylvania) for their 2005 Greatest Hits compilation EP.^[3]
• A eurotrance cover of the song was released in 2007 by dance artist Shockwave. An audio sample can be heard on the artist's official website.^[4]
• Other dance covers of the song have been released by Chrissy D., and Vic Latino featuring Akyra.
• Hungarian goth rock/doom metal band Nevergreen recorded an English language cover of the song for their album Uj Sotet Kor/Cedeum.^[5]
• American alternative music artist Hypnogaja covered the song. A sample can be heard on the artist's official MySpace page.^[6]
• Covered by Kim Kuzma voted Canada's Best Independent Artist in 2001, on her 1999 CD Contradictions
• Serbian rock band Night Shift covered the song in 2002 on their debut album Undercovers.

Sampling

• George Nozuka sings the same note when he says "Talk to me" with a slight stutter in his hit single, "Talk To Me". Another hit by Nozuka, "Last Night", features a riff that is inspired by Sweet Dreams.
• The lyric "Talk To Me" was sampled in Alice Deejay's 1999 hit song "Better off Alone,"
• The lyrics "Walk with me, like lovers do/Talk to me, like lovers do" were used in Platinum Weird's song "Taking Chances" which incidentally, was co-written by Stewart. "Taking Chances" was later covered by Celine Dion and released as the title track of her 2007 album.

References in other media

• Madonna layered elements of her own "Rain" with "Here Comes the Rain Again" for a video interlude in her 2008 Sticky and Sweet Tour.

References

External links

• Youtube - Music video