During a Q&A for “Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid” at the 2019 TCM Classic Film Festival, singer-songwriter supreme Burt Bacharach recalled the film’s unforgettable use of “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” causing quite a stir among Redford and a sizable portion of 20th Century Fox executives. According to Bachrach, “I heard […] After the movie was finished, Robert Redford said, ‘What the hell is that song doing in the movie?'”
The song, written by Bachrach and lyricist Hal David and sung by B.J. Thomas, accompanies a scene in which Cassidy, played by Newman, takes Sundance girl Etta Place (Katharine Ross) away on his bicycle and tries to seduce her by performing a series of stunts on the vehicle. It’s a goofy moment that syncs with the Hippie-style “free love” movement and gives Newman the opportunity to perform his own bike stunts for his fans’ amusement. It’s also a sequence that probably inspired a number of corny music videos in the ’80s, but it fits the context of Hill’s film (and Ross has never looked so bright on screenthanks in part to a scene filmed by her then-boyfriend Conrad Hall).
Despite numerous high-level resistance, Hill remained faithful to the song, as did studio head Richard D. Zanuck.
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