The Year of Tony Bennett

An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett

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Song of the Day: Soon It’s Gonna Rain

The song of the day for Monday, March 8, 2021, is “Soon It’s Gonna Rain.”

About This Song

“Soon It’s Gonna Rain” was written by Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks, which ran for astounding 42 years and 17,162 performances at the Sullivan Street Playhouse. For several decades, the New Yorker magazine, getting tired of describing the musical I guess, started quoting from James Joyce’s Ulysses instead of the standard content.

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded “Soon It’s Gonna Rain” in 1962 for On The Glory Road, featuring a lovely arrangement by Ralph Sharon. The album was ready to be released, but Columbia pulled it at the last minute. The album was finally released in the 2011 Complete Collection box set.

Soon It"s Gonna Rain

Listen to Soon It"s Gonna Rain on Spotify. Song · Tony Bennett · 1962

“Soon It’s Gonna Rain,” as well as On the Glory Road, is available from Apple Music.

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Song of the Day: Soon It’s Gonna Rain

The song of the day for Tuesday, April 3, 2018 is “Soon It’s Gonna Rain.”

About This Song

“Soon It’s Gonna Rain” was written by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt in 1960 for the Off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks, which ran for astounding 42 years and 17,162 performances at the Sullivan Street Playhouse.

Jones and Schmidt, both Texans, met at the University of Texas. Schmidt, an art major, was also a pianist and accompanied Jones for auditions and musical performances. They began writing musicals and revues while still students, but took a break when Schmidt served in Army and later moved to New York to begin his career as a graphic artist. He and Jones soon began writing The Fantasticks and the rest, as they say, was history. Schmidt and Jones were both inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in July 2012

Harvey Schmidt died just a few weeks ago on February 28, 2018.

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded “Soon It’s Gonna Rain” in March, 1962 for the un-released album On The Glory Road. The very fine arrangement was done by Ralph Sharon.

I love Tony’s recording of this lovely song and I hope you do too.

Soon It"s Gonna Rain

Listen to Soon It"s Gonna Rain on Spotify. Song · Tony Bennett · 1962


“Soon It’s Gonna Rain,” as well as The Glory Road, is available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: Soon It’s Gonna Rain

The song of the day for Thursday, August 20, 2015 is “Soon It’s Gonna Rain.”

About This Song

“Soon It’s Gonna Rain” is from the 1960 off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks, written by Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones. It ran for astounding 42 years and 17,162 performances at the Sullivan Street Playhouse. The original cast featured the great Jerry Orbach, in one of his first major roles on the New York stage.

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded today’s song in 1962 for his unreleased album On The Glory Road. This recording was added later to the 1971 album Love Story and was also used on re-releases of The Many Moods of Tony. This recording is so true to the song as it is used in the show; it is the big first act love song sung by the two young lovers; this arrangement captures the youth, love and naivety of the song. It’s a real joy for this writer, though I love to hear Bennett sing softly and quietly, with that special intensity he brings.

Soon It"s Gonna Rain

Listen to Soon It"s Gonna Rain on Spotify. Song · Tony Bennett · 1962


“Soon It’s Gonna Rain,” as well as On The Glory Road, is available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: Soon It’s Gonna Rain

The song of the day for Monday, January 14, 2013 is Soon It’s Gonna Rain.

About Soon It’s Gonna Rain

This song is from the 1960 Off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks, with music by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics by Tom Jones. The production opened on May 3, 1960 at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in Greenwich Village, where it played for 17,162 performances before closing on January 13, 2002.

The Fantasticks was important to this author, who developed her love of the theater in a large part from listening to the cast album for this show over and over again in her suburban home during her teens. In 1972, when I was studying drama at Birmingham-Southern College, a major touring company of The Fantasticks came to Birmingham and dedicated a performance to Dr. Arnold Powell. It was only then that I learned that Dr. Arnold Powell, the chairman of the Drama Department, was instrumental in the success of The Fantasticks. In June 1960, he was traveling to Europe for a sabbatical; he stopped in New York and caught a performance of The Fantasticks and immediately fell in love with it. At that time, the ticket sales weren’t that good and the producer, Lore Noto, was concerned they might have to close the production. Dr. Powell came backstage, raving about the piece and said that he wanted to produce it at Birmingham-Southern College immediately after his return from his sabbatical. His enthusiasm revived the spirits of the team and they vowed to keep it running. And thus a small liberal arts college in Birmingham, Alabama opened the first production of The Fantasticks after than the original production.

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded Soon It’s Gonna Rain in March 1962 for the planned On The Glory Road album. The music was arranged and conducted by Ralph Sharon. Chico Hamilton, who had appeared on Bennett’s 1957 The Beat Of My Heart, returned to play for this album as well. On The Glory Road was not released until its inclusion the 2011 Complete Collection.  However, it was used on Mr. Bennett’s 1964 album The Many Moods Of Tony, along with another song from On The Glory Road, Caravan.

Soon It"s Gonna Rain

Listen to Soon It"s Gonna Rain on Spotify. Song · Tony Bennett · 1964

Soon It’s Gonna Rain, as well as the full The Many Moods of Tony and On The Glory Road albums are available at iTunes.

And for a trip down my memory lane, here’s Soon It’s Gonna Rain from the original 1960 cast album of The Fantasticks.

Soon It"s Gonna Rain

Kenneth Nelson, Rita Gardner · The Fantasticks - Original Off Broadway Cast · Song · 2010