Come Rain Or Come Shine

I woke up early, while it was still dark and I had the great Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer song “Come Rain Or Come Shine” running through my brain.

I grabbed a guitar and started to work through it. This is one of those tunes that I have heard thousands of time by many different artists but, I had never really played it before. Whenever I sit down and work on one of these “standards”, I am amazed at the craftiness and subtlety that are inherent.

I’m gonna love you like nobody’s loved you come rain or come shine
High as a mountain and deep as a river come rain or come shine
I guess when you met me it was just one of those things
But don’t ever bet me cause I’m gonna be true if you let me

You’re gonna love me like nobody’s loved me come rain or come shine
Happy together unhappy together and wont it be fine?
Days may be cloudy or sunny
Were in or were out of the money

But I’m with you always, I’m with you rain or shine

They leave a lot of room for interpretation. You could approach this lyric with a sincere and tender sentiment. On the other end of the spectrum, the same words could be coming from a tyrannical perspective.

Harmonically, the song is deceptively simple. I was working in the key of F. If you are in F, there are a couple of spots that seem to me, to imply blues changes in some other tonal centers. Once again Arlen and Mercer leave a lot of room for interpretation. I think that this is intentional.

The two were paired together specifically to write for movies. This relationship bore some other great tunes as well, including “Blues in the Night,” “That Old Black Magic,” and “One For My Baby.

A little insight on “Come Rain Or Come Shine” from the Harold Arlen website.

The film’s (“Here Comes The Waves”) reception didn’t concern Arlen and Mercer, as the two had already begun work on their next project - a Broadway musical entitled “St. Louis Woman”. In late summer and autumn of 1945, the team was devoted to work on the new musical. One of its best songs came out of a single evening’s work in October. Mercer had come over to the Arlens’ and remained in the study while Harold went into the living room and “toyed around with an idea.” When Harold played the tune for Johnny, the lyricist liked it and even came up with a fitting opening line, “I’m gonna love you, like nobody’s loved you,” after which he paused for a moment. Into the brief silence Arlen jokingly injected, “Come hell or high water…,” to which Mercer reacted by saying, “Of course, why didn’t I think of that - ‘Come rain or come shine.’” Before Mercer went home that night, the song “Come Rain or Come Shine” was complete.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it?

A quote from the Johnny Mercer website on songwriting.

When he does both tune and lyrics, he writes a few words, pounding out the melody in his one-finger style, and then proceeds to the next batch of words, “It’s all as easy,” says Mercer, “as chopping up ten cords of wood per day!”