The Rain, The Park & Other Things

"The Rain, the Park & Other Things" is a psychedelic pop song with music and lyrics co-written by Artie Kornfeld and Steve Duboff. The song was recorded by the pop band The Cowsills, and included on their 1967 album The Cowsills (MGM E/SE-4498). Released as a single, the song reached #2 on the Billboard charts.^[1] The single cemented the group's international popularity and sold some three million copies over the years. It ties with 1969's "Hair" as the group's biggest hit, as both reached No. 2 in the U.S. It reached No. 1 in Canada's RPM Magazine charts.

The song is unusual being one of the few vocal works whose lyrics do not contain the song's title. It is known by many as "The Flower Girl".^[2]

The sound of a rain storm is heard in the introduction as well as in the portions between the Chorus and the verses. In the song, a young man sees a flower girl sitting in the rain, in the park and, where they take a walk together, hand in hand, feeling happy, until when the sun breaks through, the flower girl disappears, however, the young man is still happy because of his love for the flower girl. The young man asks the question: "Was she reality, or just a dream to me?"

The Cowsills did not play on their earliest recordings. Studio musicians were brought in to provide the music for this song and many of the earlier singles. For this song, musicians included Gene Bianco on harp, Vinnie Bell, Charles Macy and Al Gorgoni on guitar, Joe Macho on bass, Artie Butler on organ, Paul Griffin on piano, George Devens on percussion, and Buddy Saltzman and Al Rogers on drums.

The song was used in the Lloyd fantasy scene in the 1994 film Dumb and Dumber.

References

• http://bapresley.com/silverthreads/music/studiomusicians/
• http://bapresley.com/silverthreads/transcripts/jimmy.html

External links

• Songfacts