The Rain, the Park & Other Things
The Rain, the Park & Other Things is a pop song written by Artie Kornfeld and Steve Duboff for the Cowsills. It appeared on their 1967 self-titled debut album and was released as a single with River Blue as the B-side. The song became a big hit, reaching No. 2 on the U.S. charts after the Monkees’ Daydream Believer kept it from the top spot, and it sold about three million copies worldwide. It also hit No. 1 on the US Cash Box Top 100 and topped Canada’s RPM chart, making it one of the group’s biggest hits along with Hair.
The song was written specifically for the Cowsills, and Bob Cowsill says Kornfeld wrote it in two hours. The band did not play on the earliest recordings; session musicians were used, with Jimmy Wisner as the arranger. Musicians included a harpist, guitarists, bassist, organist, pianist, a percussionist, and two drummers. Kornfeld planned a rain intro, but real rain was too faint, so he used the sound of sizzling bacon instead.
It was recorded in late 1966 at A&R Studios in New York, with Bill Cowsill on lead vocals and his mother Barbara providing backing vocals after the initial sessions. The song was originally titled The Flower Girl, but MGM Records president Mort Nasatir suggested changing it to avoid confusion with Scott McKenzie’s San Francisco song; Kornfeld came up with the new title.
Lyrically, the narrator sees a flower girl in the rain, walks with her in the park as the rain stops and the sun comes out, and she disappears. He wonders whether she was real or a dream. The song later appeared in the 1994 film Dumb and Dumber during a fantasy scene.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 19:32 (CET).