Reveling in Sadness: “Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall” by Ella Fitzgerald

There’s something about the deep resonance of Ella Fitzgerald’s voice that is at once beautiful and profoundly sad. When she sings about the joys of life, each word spills from her lips like sugar drops, but when she sings the blues, it’s enough to rip your heart straight from your chest. Few singers in history have expressed the feeling of losing someone so truthfully as Fitzgerald. On “Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall,” the lyrics only play a supporting role; Fitzgerald’s timbre drives home the emotions of the song, creating a visceral feeling deep in the gut.

Yet the lyrics are heart-wrenching as well. The main line, “Into each life some rain must fall” is taken from a Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem, but in the song, the idea is expanded with the words, “But too much is falling in mine.” Performing alongside Bill Kenny and The Ink Spots, Fitzgerald conveys the feeling of having the worst luck on the planet. When you’ve lost someone close, or life hits you particularly hard, it’s easy to fall in love with a song like this.

What Fitzgerald’s rendition of this soulful ballad tells us is that it’s alright to dive down deep into your pain for a while and to truly let yourself feel the hurt.

What Fitzgerald’s rendition of this soulful ballad tells us is that it’s alright to dive down deep into your pain for a while and to truly let yourself feel the hurt. The lyrics, “Some folks can lose the blues in their hearts, but when I think of you another shower starts” acknowledge that grief is messy and unpredictable. But the song also reassures us that the our pain will almost certainly pass, as “that sun is bound to shine” again.

Blues ballads are all about confronting the kinds of feelings we rarely show other people, such as heartbreak, longing and anger.

Critics of the blues sometimes complain that the music is depressing or that it glorifies anguish. In some respects, they’re probably right. But in my mind, classic blues ballads are all about confronting the kinds of feelings we rarely show other people, such as heartbreak, longing and anger. They’re a way for us to temporarily take off our joyful masks and acknowledge those tougher emotions for a while. That is the therapy that music provides — moments of introspection and reflection that are so necessary while we’re grieving a loss.

Whether you’ve just broken up with a romantic partner or you’re grieving because someone you love has died, Ella Fitzgerald’s bluesy ballads can help you get through it with your sanity intact. More than half a century later, her music still has the power to ignite feelings of sadness and grief and yet soothe them at the same time.

Read the full lyrics to “Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall” here, or listen to the song as you watch the video below.