levipatrick - Laughter In The Rain

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levipatrick

May 02, 2025 05:50pm

<p><img src="https://www.songfacts.com/img-artalbums-145-a7de95d9feee40a14c31e5da4c61dd66.png"></p><p><br></p><p>Album: Sedaka's Back (1974)</p><p><br></p><p>Sedaka wrote this joyful and introspective song with Philip Cody, whose credits include the Huey Lewis &amp; the News song "Doing It All For My Baby" and the Carpenters hit "Solitaire," which he also wrote with Sedaka. In our interview with Phil Cody, he explained: "Neil had a house in Forestburgh, New York, which is up in the Catskills. We were going to go up there and spend a few days in the summertime and just woodshed. The thing is that I'd met a new love and I didn't want to go up there. And when I got there, I was kind of hostile to the whole process. I've never said anything to Neil about this, but as I think about it, I wanted to just get the songs written and get back to the city and my new girlfriend.</p><p><br></p><p>So we got together on a morning and Neil sat down and played me the changes and the melody to 'Laughter in the Rain.' I just sat there with a blank stare on my face. I had nothing. I had totally nothing. I excused myself, and I went out and took a walk. We were up in the country so I just took a walk and I sat down in a field near a golf course, smoked a joint, and watched some deer frolicking. I spent about an hour and a half, two hours out in the sun just kind of nodding off under a tree. I got myself up a couple of hours later and walked my way back, and Neil was there. I sat down, picked up a yellow pad of paper and in five minutes I had most of the song done."</p><p><br></p><p>In America, this was Sedaka's comeback single. He had 11 Top-40 hits from 1960-1963, but couldn't score a hit after the British Invasion. His fortunes were so bad in America, that this song was at first released only in England, where it was included on an album called Overnight Success. When it was released in America, it re-ignited Sedaka's career and he had six more Top-40 hits by 1977. That's not counting "Love Will Keep Us Together," which he wrote with Howie Greenfield and included on the Sedaka's Back album. The cover by Captain &amp; Tennille was the biggest hit of 1975.</p>