Wednesday 31 July 2013

My Top Ten Summer Rain Songs


Well, we all knew it couldn't last, didn't we...?


10. Ash - Summer Snow

Steady on, Tim, you always have to take these things to an extreme, don't you?

9. ELO -  Summer and Lightning

For Christmas, 1976, Jeff got the BBC Sound Effects: Weather LP.

8. Elkie Brooks - Sunshine After the Rain

 The original: much better than the 90s cover.

7. Placebo - English Summer Rain

Good one from the goth-pixie.
Always stays the same, nothing ever changes,
English summer rain seems to last for ages.
6. Peter Gabriel - Red Rain

OK, I realise this is a stretch, but I love the song and that's all it takes to get out my shoehorn.

Warning: do not google search what this song is about. It's by Peter Gabriel... just accept the story behind it will be more mental than anything you can imagine.

Don't watch the scary video either.

5. Turin  Brakes - Pain Killer (Summer Rain)

Olly and Gale's biggest hit. Great to hear it again. 
Leave all this misery behind...
4. Belinda Carlisle - Summer Rain

Another of my unashamed teenage pop crushes. Ah, Belinda...

3. The Alarm - Rain In The Summertime

Some knew them as the Welsh U2. Except: they were good.

2. Bruce Hornsby & The Range - Mandolin Rain

Can't believe I've published over 150 posts on this blog and this is the first time I've been able to include any Bruce Hornsby. Gorgeous stuff.
Running down by the lake shore,
She did love the sound of a summer storm,
Played on the lake like a Mandolin,
Now it's washing her away... once again....
1. Beta Band - Dry The Rain

"I will now sell five copies of The Three E.P.s by The Beta Band", says John Cusack in the film version of Nick Hornby's High Fidelity (which, you will not be surprised to discover, is one of my favourite movies). However, the pedant in me always wants to complain that the version he plays in the shop isn't the one on The Three E.P.s... it's been specially edited for the movie.

Still. Great song. 



Which one is sheltering under your umbrella?

12 comments:

  1. Glad to see you've omitted Sunshine On A Rainy Day, I Wish It Would Rain Down, and Rain On Me by a certain Miss C. Cole.

    Top, top #1 though, from a top, top film. Good choice.

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  2. I'm proud to say I don't even know the Cheryl Cole song!

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  3. Hi Rol,
    Thanks for the mention of Placebo, I had forgotten about that track, its a good one which I have enjoyed rediscovering.
    A couple more suggestions:
    Summer Rain - U2 (I think I read that you are not much of a fan, this is a largely acoustic track, solid without being a masterpiece.)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64Lu6bYkzg4
    Summer Rain - Paul Kelly, as I think I have previously said, I am big Paul Kelly fan and he has a lot of output to draw from. Similar to what I said about the U2 song, a solid track without being a masterpiece.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjwOg7o4XM0

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, U2 have to work very hard to get onto this blog.

      And that's another Paul Kelly track not on my Greatest Hits CD!

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  4. Donna SUMMER MacArthur Park...although it starts "Spring was never waiting for us, girl, It ran one step ahead, as we followed in the dance" this is clearly a metaphor for summer. And nobody in their right mind would leave a cake out at anytime other than summer and leaving the cake out is not a metaphor it is a literal interpretation (or so says wikipedea). So Macarthur park can only be about leaving your cake out in the summer rain. I rest my case :)

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    Replies
    1. You'll never hear me complaining about someone suggesting a song by the mighty Jimmy Webb (though I prefer the Richard Harris version) although that did have a pretty good showing on my Top Ten Park Songs.

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  5. Rain In The Summertime is the only The Alarm record I own. Just thought I'd share that with you.

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    Replies
    1. You should at least get New South Wales as well.

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  6. Rain Song (Mood Swings - 80s music but still damn fine listening!

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  7. First concert I took the boy to was Turin Brakes...Pain Killer makes me think of that lovely evening everytime...my no 1

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