Rain Rain Go Away

""Rain Rain Go Away""
Roud #19096
William Wallace Denslow's illustrations for a variant of Rain Rain Go Away, from a 1901 edition of Mother Goose
Song
Written	United Kingdom
Published	17th century or earlier
Form	Nursery rhyme
Writer	Traditional
Language	English

"Rain Rain Go Away" is a popular English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19096.

Lyrics

There are few versions and variations of this rhyming couplet. The most common modern version is:

Rain rain go away,

Come again another day.^[1]

Origins

Similar rhymes can be found in many societies, including ancient Greece. The modern English language rhyme can be dated to at least to the 17th century when James Howell in his collection of proverbs noted:

Raine raine goe to Spain: faire weather come againe.^[1]

A version very similar to the modern version was noted by John Aubrey in 1687 as used by "little children" to "charme away the Raine...":

Rain raine goe away,

Come again a Saturday.^[1]

A wide variety of alternatives have been recorded including: "Midsummer day", "washing day", "Christmas Day" and "Martha's wedding day".^[1]

In the mid-19th century James Orchard Halliwell collected and published the version:

Rain, rain, go away

Come again another day

Little Arthur wants to play.^[2]

In a book from the late 19th century, the lyrics are as follows:

Rain, Rain,

Go away;

Come again,

April day;

Little Johnny wants to play.^[3]

In popular culture

Arthur, according to Denslow

• A song, based on the rhyme, was co-written by Gloria Shayne Baker and Noël Regney.^[4] "Rain Rain Go Away" was initially recorded by Bobby Vinton.
• The folk group Peter, Paul & Mary recorded a version of "It's Raining" on their first LP Peter, Paul & Mary in 1962.
• American Songwriter Allen Toussaint uses the rhyme as the basis for his song "Rain Rain Go Away," as performed by Lee Dorsey on the 1966 album The New Lee Dorsey.
• This song was covered by Singaporean female artist Zhuang Xue Fang (莊雪芳), in edited Standard Chinese lyrics written by Suyin (舒雲/雨牛) under title name of 雨水不要下, with Ruby Records in 1967.
• The song Rain, from the Terence Trent D'Arby's 1987 album Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D'Arby, features the chorus "Rain, rain, go away, go away, rain, rain, come back again another day".
• The song Rain, from Debbie Harry's 1993 album Debravation, has a verse that starts out "Rain, rain go away; come again some other day".
• Asian American rapper Jin sampled "Rain Rain Go Away", Come again some other day" in the song called "Rain, Rain Go Away" he made dedicated to the victims of Virginia Tech shooting.^[5]
• It is used in the theme tune for the Australian children's television programme Round the Twist.
• The Foo Fighters song "Arlandria" uses the rhyme, changing it to "Shame, shame go away".^[6]
• American rock band Breaking Benjamin made a song called "Rain" which features the lyrics "Rain rain go away, come again another day, all the world is waiting for the sun." (adding their own spinoff to the rhyme)
• The song "Down In It" by Nine Inch Nails, finishes with this rhyme
• The song "Weak And Powerless" by A Perfect Circle contains the line "Little Angel, go away come again some other day" that may or may not be influenced by the rhyme.
• In Shake, Rattle & Roll 13, the third episode "Rain Rain Go Away" is based on the title of the song when three street children were singing the song while drawing an eye.
• In The Mighty Boosh episode "Nanageddon", the only way to get rid of the evil Nanatoo is to say a variant of the rhyme: "Nana, nana, go away. Come again another day."
• American singer songwriter R. Stevie Moore recorded a song titled "Wayne Wayne Go Away" in 1975, which appeared on the CD version of the album "Phonography".^[7]

Notes