“Come Rain or Come Shine” | Stories of Standards

Tune in to First Take with Lando and Chavis – weekdays from 6-9 am MT – for Stories of Standards to hear our favorite versions of this song all week long!

While working on the Broadway musical “St. Louis Woman” in 1946 Harold Arlen came up with a tune which immediately led Johnny Mercer to the opening line “I’m gonna love you, like nobody’s loved you”; in the brief silence that followed Arlen said “Come hell or high water” and Mercer replied “Of course, why didn’t I think of that – ‘Come rain or come shine.’” The song was completed within a few hours. Regarded as insulting to blacks by both the NAACP and original cast leader Lena Horne, the musical closed after 113 performances, while the music proved quite successful.  Pearl Bailey made her Broadway debut and won the Donaldson Award as best newcomer of the year; Frank Sinatra referred to “Come Rain or Come Shine” as “one of my favorite songs of all time.”

Harold Arlen (1905 – 1986) had his first Broadway hit in 1930 and went on to write some of America’s best-known music – “The Wizard of Oz” and “Cabin in the Sky” with Yip Harburg, “That Old Black Magic”, “One for My Baby”, “Ac-cent-tu-ate the Positive” and “Come Rain or Come Shine” with Johnny Mercer and “Blues Opera Suite” with Andre Kostelanetz. 

Johnny Mercer (1909 – 1976) started off as a singer, with 29 hits between 1938 and 1952. As a lyricist, he wrote more than 1500 songs, writing “Lazybones” (1933) with Hoagy Carmichael as his first hit. Writing with Harold Arlen they produced “Blues in the Night” (1941), “That Old Black Magic” (1942”), among others. He also founded Capitol Records. Mercer was featured on a 1996 stamp from the U. S. Postal Service.