The Cascades: "Rhythm of the Rain"

February 25, 1963 (2 weeks)

At some point in 1990 it was becoming clear that segments of the pop world were attempting to turn back the clock. Madonna did it in her own way with her big hit "Vogue" which name-dropped a host of iconic individuals from the forties and fifties — and made not-so-subtle hints that she was carrying the torch for the likes of "Dietrich and DiMaggio". Elsewhere American legacy bands like Wilson Phillips and Nelson had become stars on a level to rival their famous parents — at least for a few months. Over in Britain, Candy Flip had a huge hit with an updated cover of "Strawberry Fields Forever" while The House of Love had a predictably small chart peak with "The Beatles and the Stones". Who would have known that the nineties would have brought the sixties back into fashion?

"Strawberry Fields" wasn't the only cover or revival of an old hit to do well in 1990. In fact, it wasn't even the biggest hit of the year that had its roots in an earlier era. Sticking with the UK, their biggest summer hit was an absolutely revolting version of "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" which an act which called itself Bombalurina took to number one. The year started off with Kylie Minogue having another British chart topper with "Tears on My Pillow" from her film The Delinquents. Its use in a TV commercial (or 'advert' as those Brits call them) prompted a re-release of the Steve Miller Band's "The Joker" which hit the top that September. But the biggest hit of the year on the other side of the Atlantic was a reissue of "Unchained Melody" by The Righteous Brothers after memorably being featured in the movie Ghost.

On a lesser scale there were also a pair of covers of The Cascades' 1963 hit "Rhythm of the Rain", one by Australian actor/singer Jason Donovan and another by American soft rock vet Dan Fogelberg. Here we had a sixties' throwback that few even noticed: Donovan and Fogelberg were not unlike Cilla Black and Dionne Warwick having hits with the same Bachrach and David song an ocean apart from each other at pretty much the same time. Since the smooth stylings of Fogelberg had never taken off in the UK and since Donovan meant so little in the US that his overdose outside LA's notorious Viper Room in 1995 was scarcely noticed, the two didn't have to compete their one another. It was only in our household that the subject even came up: my sister, still clinging to her love for Richard Marx and Chicago, preferred the American's take while I, still somewhat firmly aligned with pop in spite of the creeping influence of indie, went with the Aussie heartthrob who I secretly wanted to be.

What's funny now is that both of their versions of "Rhythm of the Rain" aren't all that bad. Fogelberg's still isn't really my thing. He overdoes the passion which was on brand for an artist who always sounded like he could've made a healthy living TV jingles but I respect that he tried to do something with it. Donovan's is more of an updated version of the Cascades: all Stock Aitken Waterman production sheen with synths to basically copy the original. (As it turned out, Donovan had enough goodwill to take his version into the UK Top 10; meanwhile, Fogelberg did manage to scrape into the Canadian Top 40 but he failed to dent the American Hot 100 altogether)

These two covers don't suffer in comparison because the original isn't all that great to begin with. Fogelberg's decision to put a little too much soul into it suddenly becomes understandable when you hear the bloodless Cascades sound about as heartbroken as child playing with a puppy. While hardly an example of rock 'n' roll muscle, the Donovan rendition has a little more pop to it than the anemic recording from the early sixties. While it probably sounds like I'm defending what are deep down a pair of mediocre singles from thirty-five years ago, I just want to be clear that the sixty plus years old original isn't all that great either — and, in fact, might be a bit worse.

Anything good to say about The Cascades? I suppose it is the shortest of the three, so there's that. Donovan's isn't a whole lot longer and doesn't quite wear out its welcome but at just under four-and-a-half minutes, Fogelberg's is painfully long. I know it's been said before but stadium rock excess and the expansion of time brought on by the compact disc sure conspired to destroy pop's sense of brevity. And, although this says nothing about its overall quality, "Rhythm of the Rain" is said to have been the ninth most played song on American TV and radio of the twentieth century. It seems hard to believe, I know, but that's what the info says. The Cascades must have been doing something right. I can't hear it myself but you can't argue with the power of a "simpering ballad" as Aiden Curran over at the Irish Number Ones blog says.

1990 was a mixed year for music. The Madchester acts — Happy Mondays, The Stone Roses, The Charlatans, Soup Dragons, The Farm — were at their peak of notoriety and looked to become a force (wow, that sure didn't happen: for sure it is the biggest boner prediction I have ever made). Harder indie rock acts like Jane's Addiction and The Pixies opened the doors for the coming grunge wave. Both Pet Shop Boys and Depeche Mode released the finest albums of their careers which brought the golden age of synth-pop to an end. On the other hand, commercial pop was at a nadir of garbage via the likes of New Kids on the Block and Paula Abdul. While some in hip hop were thriving, its biggest stars — MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice — were pitiful. As if aware of such shortcomings, covers or reissues of vintage hits became popular, especially in the UK. What this trend failed to reckon with, however, was that just because a single was old didn't mean that it was worth going back to. Jason Donovan and Dan Fogelberg did their best with what they had but "Rhythm of the Rain" has always been a feeble pop song, one that can't possibly be worth the trouble of revisiting.

Score: 3