Rain Rain Go Away
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"Rain Rain Go Away" a popular English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19096.
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[edit] Lyrics
There are many versions and variations of this rhyming couplet. The most common modern version of is:
- Rain rain go away,
- Come again another day.[1]
[edit] Origins
Similar rhymes can be found in many societies, including ancient Greece. The modern English language rhyme can be dated to at least to the seventeenth century when James Howell in his collection of proverbs noted:
- Raine raine goe to Spain: faire weather come againe.[1]
A version very similar to the modern version was noted by John Aubrey in 1687 as used by "little children" to "charme away the Raine...":
- Rain raine goe away,
- Come againe a Saturday.[1]
A wide variety of alternative have been recorded including: "Midsummer day", "washing day", "Christmas Day" and "Martha's wedding day".[1]
In the mid-nineteenth century James Orchard Halliwell collected and published the version:
- Rain, rain, go away
- Come again another day
- Little Arthur wants to play.[2]
[edit] In popular culture
- A song, based on the rhyme, was co-written by Gloria Shayne Baker and Noël Regney.[3] "Rain Rain Go Away" was initially recorded by Bobby Vinton.
- The folk group Peter, Paul & Mary recorded a version of "It's Raining" on their first LP in 1962.
- The rock band Electric Light Orchestra used the rhyme in their song "Rain is falling" from their 1981 album "Time".
- The industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails used the short rhyme in their song "Down in It."
- The rock band Breaking Benjamin used some lines in their song "Rain".
- The rock band Counting Crows used the rhyme in their song "I'm not sleeping"
- Asian American rapper Jin sampled "Rain, rain, go away, Come again some other day" in the song called "Rain, Rain Go Away" he made dedicated to the victims of Virginia Tech Shooting.[4]
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c d I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), p. 360.
- ^ J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps. The Nursery Rhymes of England: Obtained Principally from Oral Tradition (London: J.R.Smith, 1843), p. 214.
- ^ Fox, Margalit (2008-03-11). "Gloria Shayne Baker, Composer and Lyricist, Dies at 84". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/arts/11baker.html?ref=arts. Retrieved on 2008-03-23.
- ^ http://theemcee.com/media/music/rainraingoaway.mp3
