Blame It on the Rain

"Blame It on the Rain" is a song by German dance-pop group Milli Vanilli.

Track listings

Chart performance

"Blame It On The Rain" debuted on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 on October 7, 1989, at number sixty-five. Seven weeks later, for the week ending November 25, 1989, it reached number one, and occupied the spot for two weeks. It also spent a total of twenty-three weeks on the Hot 100. The song became Milli Vanilli's third number one single on the Hot 100 after "Baby Don't Forget My Number" and "Girl I'm Gonna Miss You". "Rain" was their final single to top the chart before their infamous scandal took off.

It was preceded at number one on the Hot 100 by Bad English's "When I See You Smile" (also penned by Warren) and succeeded by Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire".

Blame It

"Blame It" (also known as "Blame It (On the Alcohol)") is a song by American singer/actor Jamie Foxx, released as the second official single from his third studio album, Intuition. (2008) It features singer T-Pain and was written by Christopher "Deep" Henderson, Nate Walker, James T. Brown, John Conte Jr., David Ballard and Brandon Melanchon and produced by Christopher "Deep" Henderson. Both Jamie Foxx and T-Pain use the Auto-Tune effect. T-Pain also uses some elements from "I Luv Your Girl" by The-Dream. The song received many accolades and nominations, including a win for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at the 52nd Grammy Awards.

"Blame It" is the most successful single from the album, peaking at No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and has topped the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart for 14 consecutive weeks making it the second longest-running number 1 song on the chart. "Blame It" has sold over one million downloads.

Music video

The music video was directed by Hype Williams and premiered at 106 & Park on Friday February 25, 2009. Cameo appearances in the video are made by Ron Howard, Forest Whitaker, Jake Gyllenhaal, Samuel L. Jackson, Quincy Jones, Cedric the Entertainer, Morris Chestnut, Clifton Powell, Alex Thomas, DeRay Davis, Joe, Mos Def, Tatyana Ali, Jalen Rose, Bill Bellamy, Ashley Scott, Electrik Red, Dawn Richard, Keshia Knight Pulliam, Garrett Morris and LeToya. BET named it their No. 1 music video for 2009 on their year-end Notarized countdown, beating out videos from artists such as Jay-Z, Maxwell, Alicia Keys and Young Money.

The Rain

The Rain were the Manchester band that eventually evolved into Oasis. The band formed in Manchester, England in 1991, taking their name from The Beatles' B-side, "Rain". Founding members were Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs (guitar), Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan (bass), Chris Hutton (vocals). Drummer Tony McCarroll joined shortly after the band formed to replace their drum machine and Hutton was replaced as vocalist by Liam Gallagher, who became the band's songwriter, in partnership with Arthurs. In this partnership, they wrote several songs including "Take Me" and "Life in Vain". The band rehearsed only one day a week and did not perform at shows often.

Shortly after Liam joined, the band was renamed Oasis, at his suggestion. Various explanations of the origins of the name have been offered, however, it came about when Liam’s older brother Noel roadied for the Inspiral Carpets at a venue in Swindon called the Oasis Leisure Centre. Liam reportedly liked the name's "resonance of imagery."

One day in August 1991, Noel, having recently returned from the Inspiral Carpets' tour of the U.S., went to watch his brother's band perform at the Manchester Boardwalk, supporting a band called Sweet Jesus. Noel offered to join, reportedly on condition that he would be the lead guitarist and they would perform only his songs. Noel made an instant impact on the band, he began to introduce new sounds and ways of creating music. After a few small warm up gigs in towns such as Middlesbrough, the band decided to produce Definitely Maybe, under the name of Oasis.

Milli Vanilli

Milli Vanilli was a West German-based R&B, pop and dance music project created by Frank Farian in Munich in 1988. The group was formed with Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus. The group's debut album Girl You Know It's True achieved international success and earned them a Grammy Award for Best New Artist on 21 February 1990. Milli Vanilli became one of the most popular pop acts in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Their success turned to infamy when the Grammy award was withdrawn after Morvan, Pilatus and their agent Sergio Vendero confessed that Morvan and Pilatus did not actually sing any of the vocals heard on the record. The group recorded a comeback album in 1998, but Rob Pilatus died before the album was released.

Beginnings

According to VH1's Behind the Music, the single "Girl You Know It's True" was first produced by Jesse Powell and had already been completed before Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan were recruited. Frank Farian felt that no efforts should be focused on refining Pilatus and Morvan's voices. Farian added his own studio-augmented voice to recordings, using back-up singers to hide the other two members' voices live.

He Is

"He Is" is a song by American singer Brandy Norwood from her third studio album Full Moon (2002). It was written by Warryn Campbell, Harold Lilly and Norwood, with production handled by the former two. Conceived during spiritual discussions with Norwood, Campbell and Lilly conceptualized the pop- and R&B-influenced ballad secretly as a soul song as they were keen to hear her sing a religious track, a genre which Norwood declined to record at that time. Lyrically speaking about God in third person, Norwood was unaware, "He Is" was not a relationship song when she recorded her vocals for it.

The song was released as the album's third and final single in September 2002. It received a mixed reception by music critics, many of whom applauded Norwood's vocal performance and the sparse production, but dismissed "He Is" as a weak single choice. Commercially, the track failed to reprise the success of the album's previous singles "What About Us?" and "Full Moon"; while the track failed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, it reached number 78 on the official Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart. Norwood, who was well into her pregnancy at the time of its release, was unavailable to promote the single or film a music video.