Paleo Retiree writes:

I always think of the song as “Listen to the Rhythm of the Pouring Rain,” and it’s one that, ever since it was released in 1962, has never failed to cast a little spell on me. Thanks to the miracle that is YouTube I’ve been able to enjoy a lot of different versions of it. Here are my faves.

The original, by The Cascades (a band that named itself after a brand of dishwashing detergent), is in a bland, whitebread-heartbreak mode that I often find irresistible. OK some part of me flat-out identifies with it. Plus: those bells!

Hey, I love a lot of Ricky Nelson’s music too. It seems that part of me will remain a 12 year old mid-American white boy forever.

I’ve also returned many times to the mellow funk and smooth Technicolor masculinity of the Ka’au Crater Boys:

But my fave version of the song is unquestionably this charmer by the Vietnamese-American performer Trish Trang:

The robotic-porn choreography, the adorably cheesy concept and costumes, the genuinely snappy synth bassline and Trish’s demure facial expressions — such a foxy, seductive contrast to the hard and overbright expressions we’re used to in American showbiz — send my brain into a seriously happy whirl. And I find those inanely-funky instrumental breaks a blissful sugar high. Evidently it isn’t just the Japanese who can be geniuses at crossing sexy and cute.

Related

• I didn’t manage to get hooked by the other Trish Trang performances that I explored, but Trish is unquestionably a pop-music force and talent, so why not sample some of her work for yourself?
• Cascades member John Gummoe wrote the song. Who’d have predicted that it would last as long as it has? Here’s his website.
• I enjoyed a live show by the Hawaiian group Hapa.
• I dug up and passed along a couple of topflight performances by the legendarily erratic Van Morrison.