Come Rain or Come Shine

Chart performance

The song "became a modest hit during the show's run, making the pop charts with a Margaret Whiting (Paul Weston and His Orchestra) recording rising to number seventeen, and, shortly after, a Helen Forrest and Dick Haymes recording rising to number twenty-three."

Structure

"Come Rain or Come Shine" begins most unusually: As Ted Gioia notes, "Arlen delivers the same noteflogging an A natural until it is bloody13 times in a row .... And, as if that isn't enough, he tosses out a half-dozen more of the same note in bar five, and another six over the next two bars. This isn't a melody; it's a musical starvation diet."

Nonetheless, as Alec Wilder observes, this "superb ballad ... could never be so great unless the device of those repeated notes were the principal single element in the melody. The second section is without them, providing an essential contrast. ... The whole last half of the song builds inexorably to the final f natural." He also notes that the song's harmony "is opulent throughout."

Legacy

The song has gone on to become a major jazz standard, covered many hundreds of times. As Gioia notes, "Given the paucity of melodic material and the richness of the harmonic underpinnings, the composition tends to resist grandstanding, and instead appeals to the more introspective improviser. Recordings by Bill Evans, Stan Getz, and Ralph Towner testify to the pastoral qualities of Arlen's tune."

Some notable recordings

• Tommy Dorsey (1946, first recording)
• Billie Holiday (Ab)
• Sarah Vaughan (C) (1950)
• Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers (Moanin', 1958)
• Ray Charles (The Genius of Ray Charles, May 1959)
• Bill Evans (Portrait in Jazz, December 1959)
• Ella Fitzgerald (Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Harold Arlen Song Book (Bb), January 1961)
• Judy Garland (Judy at Carnegie Hall, April 1961)
• Frank Sinatra (Sinatra and Strings (D), November 1961)
• Wes Montgomery (Full House, 1962)
• Peggy Lee (I'm a Woman, 1963)
• Monica Zetterlund with the Bill Evans Trio (Waltz for Debby, 1964)
• James Brown (Cold Sweat, 1967)
• Stan Getz (Pure Getz, 1982)

References

References

1. "Come Rain or Come Shine (1946)".
2. Zinsser, William, ''Easy to Remember: The Great American Songwriters and Their Songs'', David R. Godine Publisher, Inc., 2000, p. 245.
3. Gioia, Ted. ''The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire'', Oxford University Press, 2012, pp. 64-65.
4. Wilder, Alec. ''American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900-1950'', Oxford University Press, 1990, p. 283.
5. "Come Rain or Come Shine," SecondHandSongs.com, https://secondhandsongs.com/work/6031/versions#nav-entity, accessed December 13, 2024.
6. Gioia, p. 65.