Rain ● (1993) ● 'Erotica'

 

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Background

Released 20 years ago this week, 'Rain' was the fifth and final single from Erotica in most territories - it was the fourth single in the US and the last single was 'Bye Bye Baby' in Australia, New Zealand, Germany and Japan. The US and UK releases had different tracking lists and artwork: the former included 'Up Dow Suite' which was left off the album whilst the latter included previous single and then Peugeot advert music piece 'Open Your Heart' with a similar artwork to subsequent single 'I'll Remember'. 'Rain' was produced and written by both Madonna and main album collaborator Shep Pettibone, using the idea of rain to reflect love and washing away pain. The media initially considered the song to be a tribute to the late Karen Carpenter due to comparisons between her and Madonna's singing structure. Madonna later revealed that Karen was one of her influences due to her "harmonic sensibility".

 

Music critics responded very positively to 'Rain' with some, including Allmusic, calling it one of her best pieces: "Madonna's best and most accomplished music". Yahoo! Music responded similarly, considering it "one of Madonna's greatest ballads", however, Stylus Magazine thought it was "slushy" reworking of 'This Used to Be My Playground'. Commercially, 'Rain' performed very well for a fifth single, making the Top 10 in Canada, Japan, Australia, UK and Italy, overall better than previous two singles. In the US, it made #14, however this was a major improvement on the #36 peak of 'Bad Girl'.

 

'Rain' was first performed on The Girlie Show World Tour where it was mixed with elements of 'Just My Imagination' by The Temptations and 'Singing in the Rain'. Then 15 years later, a remix was used for a video interlude on the Sticky & Sweet Tour, mixed with '4 Minutes' and The Eurythmics' 'Here Comes the Rain Again'. This was the only two times 'Rain' was performed live - at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards, she instead performed 'Bye Bye Baby', although she did pick up two wins for 'Rain'.

 

Opinion

I have to agree with the critics and say this is one of my favourite ballads from Madonna too. Well, I can't think of any Madonna ballads which aren't perfect, but I'd still say this was one of the best! :wub: I've never thought of it before, but I can definitely hear those Karen Carpenter influences, specifically in the verses. In fact, I thought it sounded rather like Shakespeare's Sister's 'Stay' during the "you better hope and pray..." lyrics. I think I prefer 'Bad Girl', but 'Rain' would definitely be my second favourite single from Erotica.

 

Versions

Album Version [5:24]

Radio Remix [4:35]

Remix Edit [4:17]

Video Edit [4:23]

 

Videos

Official Music Video:

 

The Girlie Show Tour performance:

 

If you have any requests for Song of the Week, feel free to PM me or SweetCandy! Also, I've added links to previous Songs of the Weeks below, so if you missed one, please do comment in them.

 

Songs of the Week

Week 1: I Know It

Week 2: Bad Girl

Week 3: Jump

Week 4: Sky Fits Heaven

Week 5: Causing a Commotion

Week 6: Die Another Day

Week 7: Dress You Up

Week 8: Frozen

Week 9: Ray of Light

Week 10: Drowned World/Substitute of Love

Week 11: The Power of Goodbye

Week 12: Nothing Really Matters

Week 13: American Life

Week 14: Hollywood

Week 15: Nothing Fails

Week 16: Love Profusion

Week 17: NONE

Week 18: Burning Up

Week 19: NONE

Week 20: Girl Gone Wild

Week 21: NONE

Week 22: NONE

Week 23: Crazy For You

Week 24: Papa Don't Preach

Week 25: NONE

Week 26: Holiday

Week 27: Give It 2 Me

Week 28: NONE

Week 29: Rain

i never liked this sng that much, i love it as part of Erotica but i don't listen to it as a stand alone song. it's kinda boring to me

i wish TUTBMP was on album instead of this

Rain is so much better then tutbmp !!! Love this track I actually plagiarised parts of be song when in year 6 at school . I had to write a poem about the weather, the teacher thought it was genius!!

 

Love the gs live performance

Great song, very underrated and a forgotten song.

 

Girlie Show performance is brilliant.