Saturday January 15, 2022 ”I Wish It Would Rain” The Temptations

Known as much for their fine-tuned choreography as for their tight harmonies, The (original) Temptations, David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks, Melvin Franklin, Paul Williams, and Otis Williams alongside the instrumentation of The Funk Brothers, Motown’s studio band, would chart more than seventy top forty hits with fourteen of those reaching number one.

As a result of deaths and solo careers, they would also have nearly as many personnel changes over the years but would be the first Motown act to win a Grammy with a total of four Grammys including a Lifetime Achievement Award.

David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks would also have successful solo careers before their untimely deaths and we would see Kendricks and Ruffin appear with Hall & Oates at the Live Aid show in 1985.

“I Wish It Would Rain” was co-written by Norman Whitfield who would also write and produce so many Motown tunes including "Ain't Too Proud to Beg", "(I Know) I'm Losing You", "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", "Cloud Nine", "I Can't Get Next to You", "War", "Ball of Confusion (That's What the World Is Today)", "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)", "Smiling Faces Sometimes", "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" and…well you get the idea..

Stay safe and well…and enjoy this impeccable live performance by the Temptations long before the current age of auto-tune, back when singers could actually sing.

Sunshine, blue skies, please go away

A girl has found another and gone away

With her went my future, my life is filled with gloom

So day after day I stay locked up in my room

I know to you, it might sound strange

But I wish it would rain, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

 'Cause so badly I wanna go outside (such a lovely day)

But everyone knows that a man ain't supposed to cry

Listen, I gotta cry 'cause crying eases the pain, oh yeah

People this hurt I feel inside

Words could never explain,

I just wish it would rain, oh let it rain, rain, rain, rain, ooo baby

 Let it rain, oh yeah, let it rain

 Day in day out my tear-stained face

Pressed against the window pane

My eyes search the skies desperately for rain

'Cause rain drops will hide my tear drops

And no one will ever know that I'm crying

Crying when I go outside

To the world outside my tears

I refuse to explain, ooo I wish it would rain, ooh, baby

 Let it rain, let it rain

I need rain to disguise the tears in my eyes

Oh, let it rain

Oh yeah, yeah, listen

I'm a man and I got my pride

'Til it rains I'm gonna stay inside, let it rain