"Didn't Want to Have to Do It", though they abandoned this format for the final recording. Release and reception The possibility of releasing "Rain on the Roof" as a single generated disagreement among the members of the Lovin' Spoonful. The band's previous single "Summer in the City" featured a harder sound than their previous output, and it had attracted new fans to the group after it reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in August1966. Both Boone and Butler worried that returning to a softer sound with "Rain on the Roof" would potentially alienate the band's new fans. Sebastian countered that the band ought to avoid releasing consecutive singles which sounded too similar, further contending that "Rain on the Roof" would add another dimension to their sound. Kama Sutra Records issued "Rain on the Roof" as a single in October1966. In the October8 issue of Billboard, the magazine's review panel highlighted the song as likely to reach the top 20 of the Hot 100, and the single debuted on the chart the following week at number 76. It remained on the chart for ten weeks and peaked at number ten, making it the Lovin' Spoonful's sixth consecutive single to reach the top ten. The song was later included on the band's November1966 album Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful, where appeared as the opening track of side two. Because the song shared its name with a 1931 composition by songwriter Ann Ronell, Kama Sutra altered its title on Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful to "You and Me and Rain on the Roof". Among contemporary critics, Billboard reviewer counted "Rain on the Roof" as a continuation of the band's "unpredictable, fresh, original material", writing that the "clever rhythm ballad with [a] baroque feel" was a likely blockbuster. Reviewers in both Cash Box and Record World magazines highlighted the song's difference from "Summer in the City", Cash Box reviewer calling it a return to the band's "soft-rock stylings". In an interview with Melody Maker magazine in December1966, Bruce Woodley of the Australian pop group the Seekers praised the song's guitar work as beautiful while questioning why the song was not a hit in the United Kingdom. Writing about the song decades later, author Charles Winick considers "Rain on the Roof" melody and lyrics as having more in common with the music of decades earlier than contemporary rock music. Charts Notes References