It's Raining, It's Pouring
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| "It's Raining, It's Pouring" Roud #16814 |
|
| Written by | Traditional |
|---|---|
| Published | 1939 |
| Written | England |
| Language | English |
| Form | Nursery rhyme |
"It's Raining, It's Pouring" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 16814.
The song is not found before the mid-twentieth century in the USA.[1] It was noted in 1939 in New York by Charles Ives (1874–1954) and copyrighted in 1944 by Freda Selicoff.[2]
[edit] Lyrics
The most common modern version of this rhyme is:
- It's raining; it's pouring.
- The old man is snoring.
- He bumped his head on the top of the bed,
- And couldn't get up in the morning. [3]
[edit] Interpretation
It has been suggested that the verse is a "classic description" of a head injury ("bumped his head") resulting in an epidural hematoma, subsequent lucid interval and resultant decrease in conscious level ("snoring", "couldn't get up in the morning"). [4] The source quotes a variant of the song in which the order of "went to bed" and "bumped his head" are reversed.
[edit] In popular culture
- A children's book of the same name, written by Kin Eagle and illustrated by Rob Gilbert, expands on this rhyme to show what happens to the old man in all sorts of weather.
- The rhyme is featured in the song "It's Raining," in the 1962 debut album by Peter, Paul, and Mary. Other rhymes in the song include "Ladybug," "Starlight, Starbright," and "Won't Be My Father's Jack."
- "No More Tears (Enough is Enough)", a duet between Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer, is based around this song.
- Jose Feliciano sang this as part of his release, "(Listen to the Falling) Rain".
- This rhyme is sung by children at the end of Supertramp's song, "It's Raining Again".
- In the 1997 film Tower of Terror, a Shirley Temple-esque actress named Sally Shine, played by Lindsay Ridgeway, sings this song in a creepy manner in an elevator.
- Tom Waits used it in his song "A Sweet Little Bullet From A Pretty Blue Gun" on the 1978 album Blue Valentine
[edit] References
- Notes
- ^ J. Goldthwaite, The natural history of make-believe: a guide to the principal works of Britain, Europe, and America (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 26.
- ^ C. W. Henderson, The Charles Ives Tunebook (Indiana University Press, 2008), p. 141; Library of Congress Copyright Office, Catalog of copyright entries (Library of Congress, Copyright Office, 1944), p. 1362.
- ^ C. W. Henderson, The Charles Ives Tunebook (Indiana University Press, 2008), p. 141.
- ^ A. H. Kaye, "Essential Neurosurgery" 3rd Ed., (Blackwell Publishing, 2004), p. 57
