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Morning Edition
Cathy Wurzer

50 years since 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head' topped the pop chart

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“Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on my Head,” from the movie “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” was recorded as singer B.J. Thomas was recovering from a bad case of laryngitis.

As music historian Fred Bronson writes in “The Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits,” one studio executive thought Thomas' raspy voice made him sound like the movie's star, Paul Newman.

Thomas returned to the studio a few weeks later, fully healthy, to cut another version that topped the Billboard pop chart 50 years ago this week.