“Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” is B. J. Thomas’s #1 song, written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach for the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It won an Academy Award for Best Original Song. David and Bacharach also won Best Original Score. It was recorded in seven takes, after Bacharach expressed dissatisfaction with the first six. In the film version of the song, B. J. Thomas had been recovering from laryngitis, which made his voice sound hoarser than in the 7″ release. The film version featured a separate instrumental break when Paul Newman undertook stunts on a bicycle. Ray Stevens was first offered the opportunity to record it for the film, but turned it down. He chose instead to record the song “Sunday Morning Coming Down”, written by Kris Kristofferson. Bob Dylan is supposed to have been approached for the song, but he too reportedly declined. The single by B. J. Thomas reached #1 on charts in the United States, Canada, and Norway. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks in January 1970 and was also the first American number-one hit of the 1970s. The song also spent seven weeks atop the Billboard adult contemporary chart. In 2008, Thomas’s version was ranked as the 85th biggest song on Billboard’s Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs. His version reached #38 in the UK Singles Chart. “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” was in the film Spy Hard, which parodied the scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It is on the soundtracks to Forrest Gump and Spider-Man 2, in the latter accentuating Peter Parker’s blissful mood after abandoning his Spider-Man identity and its responsibilities. It was used in the Kevin Smith film Clerks II. The first episode of Grey’s Anatomy’s second season is named after the song.

from “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969) with Paul Newman as butch cassidy, Katharine Ross as etta place & Robert Redford as the sundance kid for a few seconds at the beginning & end

By BJ Thomas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttgCTJoGo08

Lyrics