The Searchers - What Have They Done to the Rain (1964)

Feeling the success of stardom, bassist Tony Jackson left this group in the summer of 1964 to start his own band, The Vibrations. After releasing hits such as “Sweets for My Sweet,” “Sugar and Spice,” and their most famous song, “Needles and Pins,” things were looking pretty grim for the future of the group. Luckily, they were able to add Frank Allen from Cliff Bennett and The Rebel Rousers as their new bassist and continue their success with hits like "Take Me For What I'm Worth," the song heard below, and "Goodbye My Love".

This song was originally written and performed by the political activist and folk/blues singer, Malvina Reynolds, in 1962. First called “Rain Song,” it was written as a protest about the nuclear testing in the atmosphere that was causing fall-out. For this group, it reached number twenty-nine in the US and number thirteen in the UK. It was later covered, separately, by Marianne Faithfull and Joan Baez.

To read (a little bit) more and hear "Take Me For What I'm Worth," check out our previous post here.

---

A Special Edition post with Frank Allen of The Searchers!
We've been hitting a lucky streak with these exclusive stories lately. Today's generous contribution comes from Frank Allen of The Searchers who was kind enough to share a tale from '60s music history with A Bit Like You And Me. Enjoy!

A Bit Like You And Me and readers,

One of our most amusing stories was of a concert secretary from a small social club who was very impressed with The Searchers while visiting another venue. This was in the ‘80s, or so, when we had transformed from teen idols into stalwarts of the adult cabaret/concert circuit.

The man rang our guitarist, John McNally, a few days later to enquire about booking us. When he was told the fee, the amount obviously shocked him and he replied that his establishment was a very small club and they could not afford such an amount. John gently explained that it was the price we went out for and there was nothing he could do about it.

After a short pause for thought the man replied, “We don`t actually need the four of you. How much for three?”

To this day I have not forgiven John McNally for asking him which three he wanted!

Frank Allen

Warmest thanks goes out to Frank and The Searchers for sharing this story with us.

To visit The Searchers' website, click here.
To see if they'll be coming to a city near you, check their touring schedule here!

And now that you've enjoyed this exclusive story, why not check out what other exclusive stories we've received?

---

The Searchers - What Have They Done to the Rain (1964)

Loading the ABLYAM player...(Might not work on mobile devices)

Lyrics:

Just a little rain
Falling all around
The grass lifts its head
To the heavenly sound
Just a little rain
Just a little rain
What have they done to the rain?

Just a little boy
Standing in the rain
The gentle rain that falls
For years
And the grass is gone
The boy disappears
And rain keeps falling
Like helpless tears
And what have they done to the rain?

Just a little breeze
Out of the sky
The leaves nod their head
As the breeze blows by
Just a little breeze
With some smoke in its eye
What have they done to the rain?

Just a little boy
Standing in the rain
The gentle rain that falls
For years
And the grass is gone
The boy disappears
And rain keeps falling
Like helpless tears
And what have they done to the rain?

What have they done to the rain?