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

“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.

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