The 1980s File Feature
When The Rain Begins To Fall
An Unexpected Duet: When The Rain Begins To Fall by Jermaine Jackson Pia Zadora Early 1985: the charts were thick with synthesizers, power ballads, and the p…
01 The Story
An Unexpected Duet: "When The Rain Begins To Fall" by Jermaine Jackson & Pia Zadora
Early 1985: the charts were thick with synthesizers, power ballads, and the particular kind of melodrama that the decade had elevated to an art form. The Breakfast Club was about to hit theaters; "We Are the World" was being assembled in a recording studio across town; and a collaboration between one of Motown's most storied family members and a pop actress who had become one of the era's more improbable celebrities was climbing slowly toward its Billboard peak. "When The Rain Begins To Fall" is a product of its precise cultural moment, which makes it simultaneously a time capsule and a small mystery: how did these two people end up recording together, and why did it work as well as it did?
Jermaine Jackson in 1985
By early 1985, Jermaine Jackson had been a professional recording artist for over fifteen years. His career had moved through its Motown years, the complicated period of separation from his brothers during the Thriller-era Jackson 5 reunion, and a string of solo releases that kept him visible in the R&B market. He was operating in the long shadow of his brother Michael's unprecedented commercial dominance in this period; most musical Jacksons were, by definition, measured against a standard that made their own considerable work look modest by comparison. Jermaine had charted in his own right and maintained genuine credibility as a performer and vocalist.
Pia Zadora, for her part, had navigated a highly public career that included acting work, singing, and a degree of celebrity notoriety that often overshadowed her actual musical abilities. She had recorded and released music prior to this collaboration, and the pairing with Jackson gave the project a credibility and a production quality that her solo releases had not always commanded.
The Chart Climb
The song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 the week of February 2, 1985, entering at number 95. From there it climbed steadily: 90, then 69, then 64, then 61, before reaching its peak of number 54 on March 9, 1985. That patient ascent across 11 weeks on the chart is the profile of a song building its audience gradually through radio play and word of mouth rather than arriving with the force of a heavily promoted single. In the mid-1980s chart environment, that kind of climb was still entirely viable; radio remained the primary mechanism for introducing records to mass audiences.
The Sound of the Era
The production of "When The Rain Begins To Fall" sits comfortably within the mainstream pop-R&B crossover sound of its period: synthesized textures, a midtempo groove, vocal arrangements that favor emotional expressiveness over complexity. The duet format suited both performers; Jackson's voice carried the R&B weight while Zadora contributed a pop brightness that positioned the track for broad radio appeal. The combination was commercially sensible and sonically coherent, which is not always guaranteed in celebrity collaborations assembled for reasons that are as much about publicity as music.
The song appeared on the soundtrack to Voyage of the Rock Aliens, a film that combined science fiction and musical comedy in the way that only the mid-1980s could have produced with complete sincerity. The soundtrack context gave it a built-in promotional platform while also linking its commercial fortunes to a film whose audience was narrower than the song's potential reach.
A Persistent Presence
The nearly 68 million YouTube views this recording has accumulated across the decades are evidence that something in the track has continued to attract listeners well beyond its original chart run. Some portion of that engagement is certainly nostalgic; the 1985 pop-R&B aesthetic has had multiple moments of renewed appreciation. But the song's fundamental melodic appeal and the quality of both vocal performances have kept it findable and worth sharing long after its moment on the Hot 100. Press play and hear what a certain kind of 1985 warmth actually sounded like.
“When The Rain Begins To Fall” — Jermaine Jackson & Pia Zadora's singular moment on the 1980s charts.
02 Song Meaning
Shelter and Surrender: The Meaning of "When The Rain Begins To Fall"
Rain in pop songs functions as reliable emotional shorthand. It signals vulnerability, the external world pressing in on interior states, the need for shelter both physical and emotional. In "When The Rain Begins To Fall," Jermaine Jackson and Pia Zadora deploy that imagery with the directness that characterized mainstream pop ballads of the mid-1980s: no irony, no subtext, no deconstruction of the convention. The rain is falling; the question the song poses is whether the two people in it will face it together or apart.
The Classic Duet Dynamic
The most enduring duet format in pop music places two voices in the same emotional situation but approaching it from slightly different angles: one more uncertain, one more insistent; one pulling back, one reaching forward. "When The Rain Begins To Fall" works within that tradition. The two voices occupy the same space but they are not simply saying the same thing in harmony; there is a call-and-response quality, a negotiation between two people deciding whether to be vulnerable with each other. That dynamic gives the song its forward momentum. You listen to find out whether the negotiation resolves.
The Era's Emotional Register
Mid-1980s pop operated in a particular emotional mode: earnestness was not a liability; sincerity was not embarrassing; the declaration of feeling was understood to be the point of the exercise. The production aesthetic of the era, with its synthesized warmth and carefully arranged vocal layers, created a sonic environment designed to amplify and affirm emotional content rather than complicate or distance it. "When The Rain Begins To Fall" inhabits that environment completely. The feelings described are presented without qualification; the listener is asked to accept them at face value and respond accordingly.
Collaboration as Meaning
There is something thematically appropriate about the fact that this song about choosing connection during vulnerability was recorded as a collaboration between two artists whose individual profiles were quite different. The recording required trust from both parties; the result depended on their willingness to create something together that neither could have made alone. In that sense, the act of making the song mirrors its content. Whether that convergence was accidental or designed, it gives the track a coherence that goes beyond the lyrics themselves.
Why It Has Lasted
Songs about shelter and connection during difficult moments have a built-in longevity that more specifically circumstantial material does not. The rain begins to fall on every generation; the question of whether to reach for someone or withdraw is one every listener has faced. Nearly 68 million YouTube views across the decades since its peak at number 54 in March 1985 suggest that the song's core emotional appeal has not aged out. The production dates it precisely to its era, which is now part of its charm rather than a limitation; but the underlying emotional question the song poses remains as live today as it was forty years ago.
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