| information | Title: Rain
Writers: Madonna and Shep Pettibone
Producers: Madonna and Shep Pettibone
Album: Erotica (1992) and Something To Remember (1995)
Edition Date: It was the fifth single from the album Erotica for Europe and fourth for USA in July 1993
Length of the album version: 5 ' 25''
Credits: ©1992 WB Music Corp./Bleu Disque Music Co. Inc./Webo Girl Pub., Inc. adm. by WB Music Corp./Shepsongs adm. by MCA Music Publishing Inc. Ascap. | | coments | The last single from the album Erotica in USA (in Australia and Europe would be Bye Bye Baby) was Rain, the best Madonna ballad for many fans. Rain followed another ballad, Bad Girl, with some bad critics. But this tune had better results, and the radio stations welcomed it warmly.
Of all the songs Shep Pettibone produced and wrote for Madonna, we can say that Rain has the better production. It has a great sound, with perfect arrangements. In Rain, Madonna uses a methaphore for love. She compares the rain to the waiting of a love.
In the bridge of the song, there is a tribute to George Harrison, ex-Beatle, referring to the song Here Comes The Sun.
Another strenght of this song was its excellent video, one of Madonna's most elegent ones.
The only bad thing we can say about this single is the lack of dance mixes. The remixes that were made were quite similar to the normal version of the song, with slightly diferent arrangements, or diferent lyrics at the end of the song. But Warner included a remix of Waiting, featuring rapper Everlast, and an unreleased song called Up Down Suite (just a 12 minute remix of Goodbye To Innocence, a song from the Erotica album which wasn't included on it, and released in the 1994 benefit album Just Say Roe). | | videoclip | 
| This is one of the best videos Madonna has made. Mark Romanek (who would later direct another wonder for Madonna, Bedtime Story) directed this video for Satellite Films, the producer was Krista Montagna and the artictic director was Jon Peter Flack. It was filmed in Los Angeles in 4 days, and it costed 800,000$. It was first seen in the MTV channel in June 21st.
It was completely filmed in black and white, and the digitally coloured and remastered with some amazing blue tones.
With this video, Madonna made a tribute to Japan, maybe the country that has supported her best through her musical carrer. The video takes place in a recording set in Japan, where the video is supposed to be reorded. The director in the video is Ryuichi Sakamoto, a japanese artist who has great success in the music world in the late 80's.
Madonna's image is just excellent, with a dark wig, with short hair, and a pair of magical blue eyes, all made by the stylist David Bradshaw.
The video is full of references not only to Japan, but also to the rain and the water. They prefered the efect of water falling in the walls rather than normal rain, getting a wondelful efect. |
| | live | | Madonna has only performed Rain live in The Girlie Show, in 1993. With a simple way of thinking, she sings between Nicky and Donna in the middle of the stage with black stylish costumes. In the bridge of the song thay sing a little of the famous song Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me), from The Temptations. At the end of the song, when Madonna leaves to change her costumes, the music keeps sounding, and we can see a wonderful choreography inspired by Singing In The Rain (famous musical starring Gene Kelly), with an instrumental version of Rain. Madonna called Gene Kelly personally to get adviced about the dancing movements of that part of the show.  _ 
| | collector items | | | Promo edition for USA, with the maverick logo, containing the versions: Radio Remix, Remix/Edit and Album Edit. | | | 12" Picture Disc, playing only one side. It includes Rain (Radio Remix), Open Your Heart and Up Down Suite. The image of the picture disc is from the Rain video. This is one of the picture discs more easy to find, ever at really low prices.
Rare 7" vinyl edition with the Album version of the song, but we don't know where it comes from, or if it's official or not. | | | Very complete japanese Cd-maxi. It includes: Rain (Radio Remix), Waiting (Remix), Up Down Suite (Dub), Rain (Album Version), Bad Girl (Extended Mix), Fever (Extended 12"), Fever (Shep's Remedy Dub), Fever (Murk Boys Miami Mix), Fever (Oscar G's Dope Dub) and Rain (Video Edit). In the tracklisting we can see some mistakes. We can see the Fever versions 'Murk Boys Miami Dub' and 'Oscar G's Dope Mix', which are wrong; and the 'Video Edit' version of Rain, which is just the Edit version. |  | Cd-single european release with a diferent cover, showing the look Madonna had in the beautiful Rain video. It contains: Rain (Remix/Edit), Open Your Heart (Album Version) and Up Down Suite (Dub). Open Your Heart was included because at that time, Peugeot used the tune for an advertising campaign of their cars in UK, and it became very popular. Some editions even have a sticker in the cover saying: 'Includes Open Your Heart as featured in the Peugeot TV ad'. It was also released in 7" and 12" vinyl. | | | MMaxi CD european edition, which has the video versión of Fever, called Edit One, as a great and rare B-side. It also includes: Rain (Remix Edit), Fever (Edit One / Video Remix Version), Rain (Radio Remix) and Up Down Suite (Previously Unreleased). The US edition was made in digipack with the following tracks: Rain (Radio Remix), Waiting (Remix), Up Down Suite (Non-Alnum Track) and Rain (Album Version). There are some 7" and 12" vinyls with this same cover. | | | Rare 7" vinyl edition with the Album version of the song, but we don't know where it comes from, or if it's official or not. | | | UK release in casette-single, with Rain (Remix Edit) and Open Your Heart (Album Version). |
This list of collectibles is not complete, it's just an orientative guide of the most important things. | | lyric | | Rain | | I feel it, it's coming Rain, feel it on my finger tips
Hear it on my window pane
Your love's coming down like
Rain, wash away my sorrow
Take away my pain
Your love's coming down like rain When your lips are burning mine
And you take the time to tell me how you feel
When you listen to my words
And I know you've heard, I know it's real
Rain is what this thunder brings
For the first time I can hear my heart sing
Call me a fool but I know I'm not
I'm gonna stand out here on the mountain top
Till I feel your Rain, feel it on my finger tips
Hear it on my window pane
Your love's coming down like
Rain, wash away my sorrow
Take away my pain
Your love's coming down like rain When you looked into my eyes
And you said goodbye could you see my tears
When I turned the other way
Did you hear me say
I'd wait for all the dark clouds
Bursting in a perfect sky
You promised me when you said goodbye
That you'd return when the storm was done
And now I'll wait for the light, I'll wait for the sun
Till I feel your Rain, feel it on my finger tips
Hear it on my window pane
Your love's coming down like
Rain, wash away my sorrow
Take away my pain
Your love's coming down like rain Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And I say, never go away | Waiting is the hardest thing
[It's strange I feel like I've known you before]
I tell myself that if I believe in you
[And I want to understand you]
In the dream of you
[More and more]
With all my heart and all my soul
[When I'm with you]
That by sheer force of will
[I feel like a magical child]
I will raise you from the ground
[Everything strange]
And without a sound you'll appear
[Everything wild]
And surrender to me, to love Rain is what the thunder brings
For the first time I can hear my heart sing
Call me a fool but I know I'm not
I'm gonna stand out here on the mountain top
Till I feel your Rain, I feel it, it's coming
Your love's coming down like
Rain, I feel it, it's coming
Your love's coming down like Rain, feel it on my finger tips
Hear it on my window pane
Your love's coming down like
Rain, wash away my sorrow
Take away my pain
Your love's coming down like rain Rain, I feel it, it's coming
Your love's coming down like Rain, I feel it, it's coming
Your love's coming down like Rain
[I'll stand out on the mountaintop
And wait for you to call my name]
Rain |
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| | madonna and japan | |  Japan is one of the countries were Madonna had more success. The japanese people have been following her from the very start. With the Rain video, she wanted to give them some kind of gift. Not only that video would be a tribute to that culture, but some other would come. With the video for Nothing Really Matters, Madonna wanted to convince she would duit in the Hatsomoto role in the film Memories From A Geisha. Paradise (Not For Me), would later be another example of this.
Madonna has visited many times this country for promoting singles, and in three of her world tours. She has even recorded several adversisements in that country (in one of them, for the sake drink called Takara, she even sang a new song). But she hasn't dared to sing a full song in their language.
A curious fact for collectors, is the huge amount of diferent editions released for that country, including new songs of strange covers diferent from the other editions around the world.
| | cover |  The picture of the cover is from a beautiful and rare portfolio taken by Herb Ritts, from which we haven't seen many images. The design is made by Greg Rose. | | in the chart | | The behaviour of this single wasn't very good, at least in USA, where it just reached a poor #14. Its sales were horrible: it was the Erotica single with the lowest sales (maybe due to the lack of dance mixes). The only country in which it ched the top was Canada, and it got #2 in Japan, and #7 in UK. | | official versions | 1. Album Version / Lp-version (5:25)
2. Video Version (4:19)
3. Instrumental With Backing Vocals (4:34)
4. Radio Remix (4:35)
5. Remix Edit (4:17)
6. Album Edit / Video Edit (4:33)
8. Razor'n Guido Club Mix (14:49) | | awards | MTV Video Music Awards 1993:
- Best Art Direction Para Rain
- Best Cinematography Para Rain |
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