Come Rain or Come Shine was composed by Harold Arlen with lyrics by Johnny Mercer for the 1946 Broadway musical St. Louis Woman. The show, set in 1898 St. Louis and based on a novel by Arna Bontemps, was not a commercial success and closed after roughly 113 performances, but this song far outlived the production to become one of the most enduring entries in the Great American Songbook. Arlen composed the music first, and Mercer crafted the lyric around the repetitive melody, arriving at the simple, declarative hook after Arlen jokingly suggested the phrase come hell or high water. The melody centers insistently on a single repeated note, creating a hypnotic quality that underscores the lyric's theme of unwavering devotion. Arlen's harmonically rich writing avoids standard symmetrical forms, lending the piece a distinctive structure that has made it a favorite vehicle for jazz interpretation. Early recordings by Margaret Whiting and by Helen Forrest with Dick Haymes introduced the song in 1946, and it was subsequently taken up by Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, who made it a signature piece for some thirty years, and Judy Garland, among many others. On AllSolos, the tune appears on Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers' 1958 album Moanin', with solos by Bobby Timmons, Benny Golson, Lee Morgan, and Jymie Merritt.
