Lizzie and the Rainman

""Lizzie and the Rainman" is as song written by Kenny O'Dell and Larry Henley which was a #1 C&W hit for Tanya Tucker in 1975.

A narrative song as was typical for the first phase of Tucker's career, "Lizzie and the Rainman" relates how a rainmaker visiting a drought-sticken Texas town woos a skeptical local woman named Lizzie Cooper . The idea for the song came from the film The Rainmaker whose heroine is named Lizzie Curry.

Written in 1971, "Lizzie and the Rainman" had been recorded in 1972 by Bobby Goldsboro, Alex Harvey (composer of Tucker's breakout hit "Delta Dawn") and by the Hollies (as "Lizzy and the Rainman") as well as Kenny O'Dell himself, who had an unsuccessful single release of "Lizzie and the Rainman".

Tanya Tucker recorded her vocal for "Lizzie and the Rainman" in a 19 March 1975 session [1] in Los Angeles produced by Snuff Garrett; Tucker would recall: "the recording was so impersonal. I was used to recording live with all the musicians in the studio, and I just sang to the tracks on this one." Released as the lead single from the album Tanya Tucker - which marked Tucker's MCA Records debut - "Lizzie and the Rainman" was Tucker's fourth C&W #1 and was also the first Tanya Tucker's single to reach the Pop Top 40 reaching #37 on the Billboard Hot 100 in June 1975. A #7 A/C hit, "Lizzie and the Rainman" would prove to be Tucker's only Pop hit despite her later recording material more specifically aimed at the Pop market; her one subsequent Hot 100 item "Here's Some Love" peaked at #82.

"Lizzie and the Rainman" has also been recorded by Billie Jo Spears and - as "Lizzy and the Rainman" - by the Cox Family.