Friday Song: “No Rain”
A 1992 hit with a famous "bee girl" video has quite the backstory
The young actress (Heather DeLoach) who plays the “bee girl” in the famous video for Blind Melon’s 1992 #1 hit song “No Rain” went on to have a credible acting career, starring in a couple of movies along with appearances in shows like ER and Reno911.
On the way to audition for the “bee girl” role, having been told to “look nerdy,” she and her mother stopped at a discount store to get some chunky glasses. The director liked them so much they were used in the final video, which became an MTV staple for years.
Years later, DeLoach said, “I loved being the Bee Girl. I look back on some of the interviews, and I’m like, ‘Wow, my confidence is a little too much there.’”
The song itself is about dealing with depression, as the songwriter and his girlfriend were both facing it at one point, making days with “no rain” somehow more painful to endure.
In 1994, Pearl Jam wrote a song called “Bee Girl.” With lyrics like, “Bee girl, you’re gonna die. You don’t wanna be famous, you wanna be shy,” the track was seen as a warning to the band to avoid a path of destruction. It proved tragically accurate. Blind Melon’s lead singer, Shannon Hoon, died of a drug overdose in 1995.
Blind Melon became a band that hated its hit song, leaving it off set lists at shows and avoiding it in later years.
The band went dormant after Hoon’s death, reviving itself a few times for new performances and music, but those never had the buzz of this 1992 one-hit wonder.
Enjoy!