Rediscovering a Temptations lesser-known hit

I’ve been on a Temptations kick the past few weeks, and I’ve been falling back in love with all of these songs I’ve known my whole life.

I just can’t get enough of them.

But the song that I’ve been playing 24/7 is the band’s 1967 hit, “I Wish It Would Rain.”
It’s a song I’ve heard before but must have forgotten.

It’s like an old sweater you forgot you owned, but now that you’ve found it, you can’t stop wearing it. 

It is the story of a man whose wife has left him heartbroken. He wants to go out and enjoy the day, but he can’t stop crying. He wishes for rain so that his tears will be disguised.

It starts slowly with a memorable yet simple piano line, which then leads into the sounds of seagulls and David Ruffin’s soulful voice.

“I Wish It Would Rain” is one of the band’s last singles with Ruffin still as a member of the group, and he makes the song his own.

Known for his painful and raspy tenor vocals, Ruffin is considered one of the greatest soul singers; Marvin Gaye was even jealous of his voice.

Ruffin takes us on this journey, singing each heartbreaking line more sincerely than the last, accompanied by a simple tambourine and piano line. Eventually the band and the rest of the Temptations join in, layering a nice background to David’s voice.

The rest of the Temptations lay off the verses, providing only occasional ad-libs, but in the chorus they provide the perfect background for Ruffin to belt out his emotions, showcasing the power that helped put the band on the top of the charts.

The Funk Brothers, Motown’s legendary backing band, keep the song flowing with very calm and simple grooves, while the powerful sound of the strings help the song maintain its power. This constantly tugs at your heart strings, set against producer Norman Whitfield’s samples of thunderstorms and Ruffin’s anguishing pleas for rain.

Motown always reminded me of a factory, turning out hit record after hit record the same way the Detroit automakers turned out cars.

I never thought too much about the early Motown songwriting. It always felt like standard pop songs about puppy love and crushes gone bad.

But one thing that catches me about this song is the fact that the man who wrote it, Motown songwriter Roger Penzabene, committed suicide a week after the song was released.

This song was real. It wasn’t just a bunch of words set to music to sell records — it was a man’s soul. Penzabene had caught his wife cheating and couldn’t handle it. The pain in Ruffin’s voice mirrored the pain in Penzabene’s heart.

The follow-up single, “I Could Never Love Another (After Loving You),” was written about the same situation. Penzabene wrote about a woman who is leaving her man because she has found another, and even though it is killing the man, he knows he will never be able to stop loving her.

Penzabene never lived to see the follow up single; he killed himself after “I Wish It Would Rain” was released. Similarly, the follow up was Ruffin’s last time singing lead with the Temptations. After one more song, he was fired from the band because of his ego and appetite for cocaine.

“I Wish It Would Rain” is a powerful song based purely on its sonic values, but when you look at the back-story, it just makes it even more powerful — two men who were in the midst of having it all taken from them, giving it their last shot. Penzabene poured what was left of his wounded heart out onto paper before killing himself.

Ruffin sang his heart out before being kicked out of his band. The song often gets lost amongst bigger hits like “My Girl” and “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” which is a shame because it is a truly beautiful song with a moving story.