Inside Tracks #47: Melissa Manchester, "Come in From the Rain" 1976, w/Covers by Captain & Tennille, Vic Damone, Diana Ross, Peggy Lee, Rosemary Clooney

We open with the Melissa who got the "Rain" ball rolling, and we'll end with a completely different Melissa! In between, veritable legends tackle this 1976 classic ballad!

This article’s author (l) and its subject, the lovely Ms. Manchester, after one of her 2006 shows (with autograph)!

“Come in From the Rain,” Melissa Manchester

Written by Melissa Manchester and Carole Bayer Sager, originally recorded for the 1976 album, Better Days & Happy Endings, her fifth, produced by Vini Poncia for Richard Perry Productions.

Our guest author,

Dan Pal

of PalCinema, Television, & Music:

I first became acquainted with the song when it appeared on Melissa Manchester’s 1976 album, Better Days & Happy Endings. Having already been a fan of her previous album, Melissa, I bought it in what I thought was the exciting 8-track format!

I genuinely enjoyed the album, although the tape and hiss sound made the tracks lose some of their power and emotional resonance for me. (At least one song, “Stand Up Woman,” faded out on one “program,” and then faded back in on another. Not the ideal way to listen to a song)!

Carole Bayer Sager, Melissa’s collaborator on “Come In From the Rain.”

This version of “Come in From the Rain” was never released as a single, and I get why: There were other more “pop-sounding” songs on the album, such as “Just You and I,” “Happy Endings,” and a cover of Fontella Bass’s “Rescue Me”:

These were much more in-line with what radio was playing, even though they didn’t become big hits. This original version of “Come in From the Rain,” which she co-wrote with her primary collaborator at the time, Carole Bayer Sager, was simultaneously lush and quiet:

Manchester has said that she and Sager came up with the first two verses in their first session. Manchester then went home and came up with the bridge in the early morning hours.

She told Songfacts: “In my music room lived my drummer at the time, who was chronically late, and the only way I could make sure he would show up on time for gigs was to have him live with me and my then-husband. So, one night at around 2 in the morning, I climbed over where he was sleeping so I could get to my piano and I put on the damper pedal and I wrote the bridge:

It looks like sunny skies

Now that I know you’re all right;

Time has left us older and wiser.

I brought that to Carole the next day, and I played her that bridge, and she added, ‘I know I am,’ which completed the idea, of course.”

This first version of the song starts with a simple piano and almost breathy vocals from Manchester before she lets the fullness of her voice shine through. A larger orchestration also begins to appear. It’s notable that an ARP Synthesizer played by James Newton Howard was also used as part of the production.

The following year, The Captain & Tennille recorded the song and made it the lead track, and the title of their 1977 album (produced by Daryl Dragon, with Toni Tennille credited as Associate Producer). It was the second single from that record, but it only hit as high as #61 on the Billboard Hot 100, actually breaking their streak of Top 20 hits.

“Come In From the Rain,” from a TV show. The Captain & Tennille, synching to recorded track (with storm sound effects):

I once recall Manchester mentioning to Dinah Shore on her TV talk show that The Captain & Tennille added a “hurricane” sound effect to the intro of the song. Perhaps that didn’t help its pop chances. However, the song ended up being recorded by a series of older pop singers including Rosemary Clooney, Eydie Gormé, Cleo Laine, and Peggy Lee.

According to Secondhandsongs, a whopping 64 vocalists have taken on the song, with only 1/2-dozen of those being by males! Here’s the venerable Vic Damone, with an umbrella and his 1982 cover:

🌟Be sure to scroll down to the very end (after you enjoy our “Inside Tracks,” of course!) for “The Friendly Battle of the Merch Mega-Mugs”!☕

Melissa and “Come In From the Rain” 2.0

Her second version appeared on her 1982 album, Hey Ricky. This was one of Manchester’s most successful albums, spawning the Top Five hit, “You Should Hear How She Talks About You,” which earned her a Grammy in early 1983. The album features a number of different songs and styles that were far different from that hit.

I’m not sure if producer, Arif Mardin, was purposely trying to create an eclectic album, but he must have assumed it was going to have hit potential with such a diversity of sounds. The re-recording of “Come in From the Rain,” arranged by Mardin, seems like a way to pull Manchester’s previous fans into her burgeoning new pop/synth sound.

Her vocals sound more assured and a tinge more pop than the original. It still possesses a lush orchestral background, though, which is reminiscent of the style of her big-building ballad hits such as “Don’t Cry Out Loud” and “Fire in the Morning.”

Notable musicians on this recording include Jeff Porcaro (Toto, Steely Dan) on drums and Robbie Buchanan (below) on pianos and Prophet synthesizers.

Keyboardist, Robbie Buchanan at another “key board.” Buchanan played keys for FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE exclusive contributor, singer/songwriter/guitarist, Stephen Michael Schwartz, for a one-nighter in Washington state in 1975, opening for singer/songwriter, Paul Williams. Read about it here.

Melissa and “Come In From the Rain” 3.0

Her third version of the song was recorded for her 2024 album, Re:View. Manchester reportedly wanted to re-record all of her big hits to claim ownership of them decades after her lengthy association with Arista Records had ended.

According to michaelcavacini.com, “Manchester felt a third re-visiting of the song was in order. In this new, introspective arrangement (with thanks to Peter Hume), Manchester reduced the former expansive orchestral renditions of the piece to a quieter, more intimate version with her vocal/piano performance accompanied only by a simple string trio and solo bassoonist, William Wood.”

Manchester’s voice has changed a bit in the last 40 years, and as such she uses different intonations in this version along with a less busy and smaller sound. Which version do I prefer? I think I’ve listened to the original more than any of the others, but I do like the grandeur of version two and the simplicity of version three. Either way, it’s an American classic.

“Come In From the Rain”: Select Covers

Dan has already given us a couple covers above (Captain & Tennille and Vic Damone), but, we can share a few more of the over 60 covers that have been recorded since Melissa’s 1976 unveiling!

Diana Ross, 1977

Diana Ross at Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas, 1977.

Just a few short months after The Captain & Tennille recorded the first-ever cover of the Manchester/Bayer Sager song, Diana Ross released hers in September 1977, on her Baby It’s Me album, produced by the late Richard Perry, known for (among many other achievements) bringing a rock edge to Barbra Streisand on her 1971 Stony End album.

String and horn arrangements on Diana’s album were by Del Newman, while singer/songwriter, Tom Snow joined her in the studio on Fender Rhodes, and Lee Ritenour and Ira Newborn on guitar; Miss Ross is our first example of “Come in From the Rain” being a song that can be embraced and uplifted by a seasoned, hitmaking star (we’ll see more examples, coming up):

Peggy Lee, 1979

With Miss Ross laying the foundation for this song’s inevitable entry into “American Standard” territory, enter Miss Peggy Lee, who recorded her arrangement for her Close Enough For Love album in 1979, with a 4-piece jazz combo.

Produced by Hugh Fordin, and conducted and arranged by Richard Hazard, her combo consisted of former Zappa sideman, Ian Underwood (keyboards), Max Bennett on bass, prolific session drummer, John Guerin, and one of these three on guitar: Dennis Budimir, John Chiodini, or John Pisano.

The sudden flurry of legends covering “Come In,” must’ve thrilled Manchester and Bayer Sager! But, the hit parade didn’t stop…it only gained momentum in 1981!

Rosemary Clooney, 1981

From her 1981 With Love album (on Concord Jazz Records), Rosie’s cover was produced by Concord’s founder, Carl E. Jefferson.

BONUS: Six years later, and with full orchestra, Ms. Clooney performs “Come in From the Rain” for the Cerebral Palsy telethon appearance from 1987, introduced by hosts Henry Winkler and Nancy Dussault:

Eydie Gorme, 1981

Ms. Gorme and her stratospheric closing “money note” for the win!

Ms. Gorme, from her 1981 Since I Fell For You album on Applause Records, with longtime Frank Sinatra and Paul Anka producer/arranger, Don Costa, producing:

We began with a Melissa, so we close with a Melissa…44 years apart!

Special Encore, 2020: Melissa Etheridge, at home with the Jane Olivor arrangement:

For more about Melissa Manchester, our co-author here,

Dan Pal

, and this brilliant recent collab with good friend,

Mark Edward Randall

of Musings Of A Broken Record:

You Should Know About: Melissa Manchester

✨The Friendly Battle of the Merch Mega-Mugs! Get your

Dan Pal

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