Tuesday June 7, 2022 “Rhapsody in the Rain” Lou Christie
So here’s the problem, it’s 1966 and you just can’t be singing about making love in your car. It might give the teenagers listening to the song the wrong idea…like teenagers hadn’t been thinking about this from the minute they got their driver's licenses.
Because the Catholic Church wanted “Rhapsody in the Rain” banned on radio stations, it only made the kids want to hear it more. Although mild by today's standards, it was a hot topic back when you certainly weren’t supposed to sing about "Makin' love in the storm".
Lou Christie, the singer and co-songwriter said, "I had priests and nuns calling to complain. Even Time magazine did an article on it, saying I was corrupting the youth." Christie’s record label had him re-record what they deemed was a censored version but it really was no different and those kids they thought they were protecting still knew exactly what the song was about.
And you know what all these well intentioned arbiters of taste and correctness did, they helped make this song a top ten hit and delivered extensive radio airplay to “Rhapsody in the Rain”.
The background vocals, a very large part of this song, were done by a group from Belleville, NJ known as The Delicates who sang so many commercials and did a barrelful of back-up vocals with a variety of recording artists including Frankie Valli, Connie Francis, Neil Sedaka and many others.
Stay safe and well…and wondering where the 'rhapsody' comes from? The melody for today's song is based on Tchaikovsky's "Romeo & Juliet"...those early young lovers.