It Ain't Gonna Rain No More: A Song History

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The Traditional Ballad Index treats "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More" as a traditional song, a loose string of nonsense verses tied together by its title refrain.[1] Carl Sandburg, who printed it in The American Songbag (1927), described it as a dance song of Iowa and Nebraska and, citing Edwin Ford Piper, said it had come from Kentucky and other parts of the South; he dated it to the 1870s or earlier.[2] Dorothy Scarborough's 1925 collection gives a Texas version used for a dance in which one more couple takes the floor with each new verse.[3] The Ballad Index gives 1919 as its earliest date for the song, citing the Frank C. Brown collection of North Carolina folklore.[1]

Japanese woodblock print of travelers and palanquin bearers hurrying up a slope through slanting rain

Utagawa Hiroshige, Sudden Shower at Shōno, from the series Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō, woodblock print; ink and color on paper, 1834–35. Shown in fun; it has no connection to the song.

The version most people know came from Wendell Hall, a Kansas-born singer, songwriter, ukulele player and early radio entertainer sometimes billed as "The Red-Headed Music Maker."[4] He recorded it for Victor in New York on October 12, 1923, accompanying himself, and the disc label credits him as composer.[5] Victor issued it on November 23, 1923, as Victor 19171, backed with his recording of "Red Headed Music Maker."[6] A 1923 edition of the sheet music from Forster Music Publishers of Chicago was billed as a million-copy edition with 24 new verses.[7] Another copy credits the ukulele arrangement to May Singhi Breen and bills Hall as "The composer on Victor Records."[8] The Ballad Index notes that even the cover called it an "old southern melody," and cites Edward Foote Gardner's estimate, in Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century (2000), that it was the top song of 1924.[1]

Southern string bands recorded it too: Fiddlin' John Carson cut it in Atlanta on August 27, 1924, with the label still crediting Hall.[9] Gid Tanner's Skillet Lickers, with Riley Puckett and Clayton McMichen singing, recorded it in Atlanta on April 8, 1929.[10] Maureen Sellers includes it in My Teaching Book For Appalachian Dulcimer, Volume Two, a 56-page instruction book of basics, how-tos and tunes for Appalachian dulcimer, published by Fingers Of Steel.[11]

Our books that contain the song "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More"

Sources

  1. The Traditional Ballad Index: "Ain't Gonna Rain No More".
  2. Internet Archive: "Carl Sandburg, The American Songbag (1927)".
  3. Internet Archive: "Dorothy Scarborough, On the Trail of Negro Folk-Songs (1925)".
  4. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Wendell W. Hall".
  5. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor matrix B-28741. It ain't gonna rain no mo' / Wendell W. Hall".
  6. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor 19171".
  7. Lester S. Levy Sheet Music Collection, Johns Hopkins University: "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'".
  8. Connecticut College, Greer Music Library Historic Sheet Music Collection: "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'".
  9. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "OKeh matrix 8711. It ain't gonna rain no mo' / Fiddlin' John Carson ; Virginia Reelers".
  10. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Columbia matrix W148201. It ain't gonna rain no mo' / Skillet Lickers ; Gid Tanner".
  11. Fingers Of Steel: "Maureen Sellers, My Teaching Book For Appalachian Dulcimer, Volume Two".
  12. Image: Utagawa Hiroshige, Sudden Shower at Shōno, from the series Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō, woodblock print; ink and color on paper, 1834–35. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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