Songoftheday 4/7/15 - The song came and went like the times that we spent hiding out from the rain under the carnival tent...

"Mandolin Rain" - Bruce Hornsby and The Range
from the album The Way It Is (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 12

Today's Song of the Day is from the Virginian rock band Bruce Hornsby and the Range, whose second single and title track from their debut album The Way It Is broke them on pop radio and landed them a #1 hit in the U.S. For its following they released the laid-back honky-tonk inflected "Mandolin Rain", written by Bruce with brother John, and featuring the named instrument played by band member David Mansfield....

"Mandolin Wind" became the second top-5 pop hit from The Way It Is in March of 1987, while topping the adult contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart in Billboard for three weeks. The single also crossed over to both the Mainstream Rock (#2) and Country Singles (#38) chart, his biggest success on the latter list. Internationally, the song went to #14 in Canada, and was a minor hit in Britain at #70.

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Here's the band performing the song live as it was peaking in 1987...

Country singer Pam Tillis covered the song on her classic album All Of This Love in 1995 as well as a bunch of other collections. Here she is live in 2004...