Rain Dance - Guess Who (197) 9/28/22

"Rain Dance" by the Guess Who was a far bigger hit in Canada (#3) then it was in the US (#19).

This was partially because of the Canadian content rule, which required Canadian radio stations to play a substantial percentage of Canadian artists every hour.

For that reason, #19 is probably a more accurate chart position overall. But that's just a guess.

To me, "Rain Dance" is a "Great Song" because the lyrics. The more you listened, the more you wondered about the cast of characters being sung about. You can check the lyrics here: https://www.burtoncummings.com/lyrics/rain-dance/

Who are Fifi and Don? Who is Christopher? Who is the astronomer? And who is John with the gun?

I stumbled across an interview with the Guess Who's Burton Cummings on relix.com, and here is his answer: (edited)

"Those were just words I chose to rhyme with “Where’d you get the gun John.” John was my next door neighbor and one day he was sitting on the steps cleaning his rifle. He was a duck hunter."

Guess Who guitarist Kurt Winter came up with the chant:. ""Don’t you want a rain dance? Don’t you wanna rain dance," and according to Burton, they just those pieces together, had a cold beer, put it on tape , and went to Chicago to make a record out of it.

And now you know the rest of the story!

"Rain Dance" by The Guess Who: a "Great Canadian (and US) song of 1971!