Sometimes known as It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo', this classic of American folk songs is still sung today by thousands of children all over the world. An interesting restored audio file of a 1920's version of the original song sung by Ukelele artist Wendell Hall can be found along with some images over at the Internet Archive. The fun thing about this recording is the lyrics, and it goes to show just how much this song has changed over the last hundred or more years.
The main chorus to It Ain't Gonna Rain No More has remained relatively unchanged:
Oh, it ain't gonna rain no more, no more
It ain't gonna rain no more
How in the heck can I wash my neck
if it ain't gonna rain no more
But the individual verses to the song change dramatically depending on the generation it is being sung by. Almost every summer camp has their own unique and funny verses, many similar in style to those used often by scouting groups and others:
A peanut sat on the railroad track
It's heart was all a-flutter
Along came the 4:15
Toot toot, peanut butter
- Chorus
Mary had a little lamb
She kept it in a closet
And every time she took it out
It left a small deposit
- Chorus
The song's popularity has remained constant over the last century, as evidenced not only by it's pronounced use as a campfire and summer camp song, but also in the media as well. Take for example this fun to watch video clip of a 1949 animated version of the song found on YouTube (complete with a bouncing ball to sing along with):
As mentioned though, the lyrics to the song continue to evolve even today. To underscore this fact, take the case of another resourceful music teacher who used It Ain't Gonna Rain No More as a starting point for an interesting lesson plan that has students writing their own lyrics to this classic tune. The lesson plan, created by Corbett Harrison, is available on the WritingFix web site.
The sheet music provided below is also provided as an MP3 audio file and a Finale format music notation file. If you own a copy of or have access to a copy of the Finale music notation software you can use the MUS file to make changes as needed for your particular situation.
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Any arrangements written by Chad Criswell and MusicEdMagic.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. There is no charge for these materials, but educational institutions that use them in their classrooms are asked to provide a link either in their printed concert programs or on their school web site linking to MusicEdMagic.com.
Oh It Ain't Gonna Rain No More
| # | Name | Size | Downloaded |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Oh It Ain't Gonna Rain No More PDF Version | 23.4 KB | 2969 times |
| 2 |  Oh It Ain't Gonna Rain No More MIDI File | 3.29 KB | 2473 times |
| 3 |  It Ain't Gonna Rain No More Music XML File | 35.75 KB | 2804 times |