"Rain" is a song by The Cult

The Cult

The Cult are a British rock band that was formed in 1983. They gained a dedicated following in Britain in the mid 1980s as a post-punk band with singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary", before breaking mainstream in the United States in the late 1980s as a hard rock band with singles such as "Love...

 from their Love

Love (Cult album)

Love is an album by English rock band The Cult, released in 1985 on Beggars Banquet Records. The record has been released in nearly 30 countries worldwide, and sold an estimated 2.5 million copies. It gave The Cult commercial success in the UK and abroad...

 album. It was briefly known as "Sad Rain" during its recording, and the lyrics were reportedly inspired by a Hopi

Hopi

The Hopi are a federally recognized tribe of indigenous Native American people, who primarily live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona. The Hopi area according to the 2000 census has a population of 6,946 people. Their Hopi language is one of the 30 of the Uto-Aztecan language...

 rain dance. Ultimately it was the second single released from that album following She Sells Sanctuary

She Sells Sanctuary

"She Sells Sanctuary" is a song by the English rock band The Cult. It is from their 1985 album Love and was released as a single in May of that year, peaking at no.15 in the UK Singles Chart.The band has released various versions of the song...

. It peaked at #17 on the UK singles chart, and has always been a live favourite, being performed at almost every gig since its release.
Despite the song's popularity, after performing it live in November 1989 at Wembley, singer Ian Astbury

Ian Astbury

Ian Astbury is an English rock musician and songwriter best known as the lead vocalist for the rock band, The Cult.-Pre-Cult:...

 said, "So you like that one?" and after the audience cheered, Astbury responded by saying, "Personally, I don't." This can be heard on bootleg

Bootleg recording

A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. The process of making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging...

 live audio and video recordings of the concert.
There is one alternate version to the song, a remix titled "(Here Comes The) Rain".
The remix version of this song was used during a party sequence in the film Demoni 2

Demoni 2

Dèmoni 2 is a 1986 Italian horror film directed by Lamberto Bava and co-written and produced by Dario Argento. It is a sequel to Bava's 1985 film Dèmoni and stars David Edwin Knight, Nancy Brilli, Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni, as well as Argento's youngest daughter Asia Argento in her debut film...

, and the original version plays during the end credits to the film.

Variations

There were several variations of the cover artwork used throughout the world. Some versions used silver lettering, others used white, while others had a silhouette effect on the cover.
In Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, a completely different picture cover was used, with trio of photos of the band: two onstage colour photos, and on the back one promotional black-and-white photo. This version was issued as both a white label promotional record, also with picture labels.

Track listing

Vinyl 7"
A Side : "Rain"
B Side : "Little Face"

Vinyl 12"
A Side: "Rain", "Little Face"
B Side: "(Here Comes The) Rain"