It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'

"It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" is a song that is entirely the creation of the "Red-Headed Music Maker", guitarist and vocalist Wendell Woods Hall (1896–1969). Hall's 1923 recording of the song was popular in Britain and sold in excess of two million copies.[1] Additionally, it scored 20 weeks on the U.S. charts, six at number one.[2]

It was sung during the 1925 FA Cup final by Sheffield United supporters who made it a popular football song of the era during the match.

Many antecedents exist from the 19th century. By the 1920s many variants were already extant in popular culture. Carl Sandburg suggests that the song goes back at least to the 1870s and includes verses in his American Songbag (published 1927). This song is an excellent example of the folk tradition of transmission with local variants. Mr. Hall most likely codified what already existed and added original verses.

In popular culture

This song may be known to modern audiences because featured at the end of a 7-minute black & white animated cartoon, issued by Pathe Studios in May 1930, the work of John Foster & Mannie Davis, titled Noah Knew His Ark.[3] Part of the song is sung in The Plumber, a 1933 Oswald the Lucky Rabbit short.[4] A part of the song was also featured at the end of Against the Sun, produced by American Film Company, and released in 2014.
In a suicide attempt she happily divulged, the actress Tallulah Bankhead attempted to overdose on aspirin after losing the role of Sadie Thompson in the London production Rain, which she had desperately wanted and campaigned for. Bankhead took a handful of aspirin with alcohol before taking to bed, her note, a jest on the name of the show, read "It ain't going to rain no moh". Bankhead, a lifelong insomniac, awoke the next morning feeling better than she had in months.

  1. ↑ Biography of Wendell Hall – Windowsmedia.com Media Guide
  2. ↑ CD liner notes: Chart-Toppers of the Twenties, 1998 ASV Ltd.
  3. ↑ Video on YouTube
  4. ↑ "The Walter Lantz Cartune Encyclopedia: 1933". The Walter Lantz Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2011-04-21.


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