Raindrops Kept Falling On My Head

B.J. Thomas died this week. A lot of the FB music groups I belong to were talking about his music and his importance in pop culture. I really had to beg to differ. I've been a serious music collector most of my life but there is absolutely no BJ Thomas on my shelves, on my hard drives, anywhere. And for good reason.

He had a couple of really lame hits on the radio in the early 70's but the thing I found most unforgiving about him was doing that song Rain Drops Keep Falling On Your Head that was featured on the otherwise wonderful movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

When that film was released in the fall of 1969 I went and saw it right away. I loved it right up until the moment when somehow that BJ Thomas song came on the screen in a very weird and out of place scene that didn't go with the movie one bit. It was like they filmed that bike scene just to play that song. It was awful. IMHO. 

The song came out a few months before the movie but didn't really become a hit until the movie had success. Then the song became the first #1 song of the 70's but would not have been a hit without the film.

I've seen this film numerous times over the 50 plus years since it's release and still every time I see the bike riding scene with that song I cringe. It sounds even worse over time and radically dates an otherwise great film with just that once scene and song.

Regardless of my feelings for his music it is sad that this artist died this week at age 78 of lung cancer.