The Gentle Rain
"The Gentle Rain" is a 1965 bossa nova composition by Luiz Bonfá, with lyrics by Matt Dubey. Originally written in A minor key and 4/4 time, this song was first released as part of the motion picture soundtrack of the 1966 film The Gentle Rain of the North-American director Burt Balaban. The music of the film was a collaboration of Luiz Bonfá as a composer and Eumir Deodato as orchestra arranger and director. It has become a jazz standard recorded instrumental in the following albums:
Astrud Gilberto recorded the song in 1965 on The Shadow of Your Smile. It is also reported to be one of Tony Bennett's favorites and recorded on his 1966 album The Movie Song Album featuring Luiz Bonfá on guitar. Other recordings were by Sarah Vaughan, Irene Kral with pianist Alan Broadbent, Shirley Horn, Diana Krall, Stacey Kent featuring vocals with the saxophonist Jim Tomlinson, Barbra Streisand, and Don Burrows. It was also played at the funeral of Irish guitarist Louis Stewart in 2016 in the presence of the president of the Irish Republic but misattributed to a non-Brazillian composer in the Irish Times obituary.
