Cowsills – "The Rain, The Park & Other Things" (1968)

I saw her sitting in the rain

Raindrops falling on her

She didn't seem to care

At our weekly trivia competition last night, the host played brief snippets from three pop records and asked us to identify the groups that recorded them – each of whom consisted entirely of siblings.

I immediately thought of the Cowsills.  But the host didn’t play “The Rain, the Park & Other Things,” or “Indian Lake,” or any other Cowsills recording.

Then it hit me.  While there were six Cowsill siblings in the group – Bill, Bob, Barry, John, Paul, and Susan (but not Bob’s fraternal twin, Richard) – their mother Barbara joined them just before they recorded their first album, which included today’s featured song.

The Cowsills inspired “The
Partridge Family” TV show

So the group didn’t consist entirely of siblings (like the Jackson 5) – meaning they couldn’t have been one of the answers to that trivia question.

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Several of the Cowsills siblings pursued post-Cowsills musical careers after the group broke up in 1972.

Susan – the youngest member of the Cowsills – joined the Continental Drifters in 1993, and quickly demonstrated that she was a talented songwriter as well as a gifted singer.  

Ex-Bangle Vicki Peterson – who married John Cowsill – was also a member of that group. 

Susan Cowsill and Vicki Peterson in 2018

Click here to hear “Who We Are, Where We Live,” which the Continental Drifters released on their Vermillion album in 1998.

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Bob, Paul, and Susan are still touring as the Cowsills.  John occasionally joins them.  

Sadly, Barry drowned in New Orleans in 2005 as a result of the flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina.  Bill died of natural causes on February 18, 2006 – the day before his siblings gathered for Barry’s memorial service.  

Click here to listen to “The Rain, the Park & Other Things,” which made it to #2 on the Billboard “Hot 100” in December 1967.  (“Daydream Believer” by the Monkees kept the Cowsills out of the top spot.)

Click here to buy that recording – the newest member of the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” HIT SINGLES HALL OF FAME – from Amazon.