With the Wind and the Rain in Your Hair

With the Wind and the Rain in Your Hair is a sentimental ballad composed by Clara Edwards with lyrics by Jack Lawrence, first published in 1930 by G. Schirmer. Edwards, a classically trained musician who turned to songwriting out of financial necessity after her husband's death, created the piece during an early burst of prolific creativity in the late 1920s. The composition blends elements of art song and popular parlor music, featuring a tasteful, lyrical melody marked by expressive dynamics and a gentle emotional arc that evokes the natural imagery of its title. Though published in 1930, the song did not achieve widespread popularity until around 1940 when Paramount Music Corporation reissued it, after which it gained traction through radio performances by prominent vocalists. Opera singers Ezio Pinza, Lily Pons, and John Charles Thomas all performed the song, often on programs like The Bell Telephone Hour, and it later attracted interpreters from outside the classical world including Pat Boone and jazz guitarist Tal Farlow. The tune is not a jazz standard in the traditional sense but rather a concert song that occasionally crossed into jazz and popular settings. Edwards herself considered it her most successful work, and it remains part of vocal pedagogy anthologies alongside her other well-known songs By the Bend of the River and Into the Night. Its appearance in Stan Getz's repertoire represents an unusual choice that reflects the breadth of material the tenor saxophonist explored during his early recording career.