A Look at Classic-Country Songs for A Rainy Day
Country Stars Take Storm-Filled Tunes to the Top of Music's Charts
Sep 27, 2009
Beer drinkin’ anthems, cheatin’ songs and love-gone-wrong laments have often been the stuff that country songs are made of—never mind the traditional-country train songs or odes to a favorite hunting dog that's now long gone.
And while country music assuredly has its typical fodder and tried ‘n’ true topics, a variety of other subjects abound. Hence, when the skies turn gray and the clouds roll in, there’s an ample stash of raindrop-kissed country songs that radio DJs and programmers can call on to help capture the mood and feel of a rainy day.
Songs About Rain Find Favor with Country Radio, Country Fans
Granted, all genres have their “rain” songs, but country fans have made some of their format’s rain songs playlist staples, no matter the weather outside, including North Carolina-born artist Ronnie Milsap’s Smoky Mountain Rain of 1980.
Not only does the rain keep fallin’ in the Tennessee hills that Milsap sings of, but it also “keeps on callin’ her name,” making the gal who got away somewhat impossible to forget, especially on a rainy day. The song was a fan favorite, reaching No. 1 on the U.S. country charts of Billboard and No. 8 on Canada's country charts, as well as becoming a No. 24 crossover single on Billboard's Hot 100.
Five years earlier, in 1975, the late "country outlaw" Waylon Jennings (1937-2002) penned and then famously sang about a Rainy Day Woman, who had “been a friend of mine.” The Littlefield, Texas, native’s song hit No. 2 on the U.S. country charts and No. 18 on Canada’s country charts. Then, nearly 20 years later, another Texas crooner, neotraditionalist Mark Chesnutt, cut the song again, with Jennings as his duet partner, on Chesnutt’s 1994 Decca Records album titled What A Way to Live.
Meanwhile, Jennings and his wife, singer-songwriter Jessi Colter, also collaborated on a rain-related country duet, Storms Never Last, in 1981. The number was inked by Colter, who reportedly tossed it in the trash only to have Jennings rescue it. Storms Never Last, which reached No. 17 on the U.S. country charts and No. 11 in Canada, was included on the couple's first joint album, Leather and Lace, on the RCA Victor label.
Country Music's Willie Nelson Scores First No. 1 and Grammy with A Rain Song
Another member of Jennings' "outlaw movement" in country music, Willie Nelson, recorded what is arguably one of the most timeless rain songs radio has encountered with Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain, a song that became his first No. 1 single as a performer.
Although Nelson is known as a great songsmith, having penned numerous hits for others, including Hello Walls, a No. 1 for Faron Young in 1961, it was Fred Rose—not Nelson—who penned the Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain classic. The song did, however, earn Nelson a Grammy Award in 1975 for Best Male Country Vocal Performance.
Eddie Rabbitt: Country Songwriter-turned-Singer Creates Two Hit Songs About Rain
Reared in New Jersey, the late Eddie Rabbit (1941-1998) had a hand in two rain-inspired staples of country radio; namely, I Love A Rainy Night, which Rabbit sang to the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100, Hot Country Singles and Adult Contemporary Singles charts in 1981, and Kentucky Rain, a No. 16 hit for Elvis Presley in 1970 that songwriter Rabbit penned. (Interestingly, fellow “rain song” list member Milsap played piano on the Kentucky Rain studio track by Presley.)
As for the former Rabbit song, music historian Fred Bronson—in his 2003 book titled Billboard Book of Number One Hit—wrote that I Love A Rainy Night was a dozen years in the making for Rabbit, who stumbled across an old tape he’d made in the 1960s of himself singing “I love a rainy night.” The purpose of the tapes was to help Rabbit recall song ideas, and in 1980 after finding the aforementioned tape with only two lines recorded, he completed the tune in 1980.
"It brought back the memory of sitting in a small apartment, staring out the window at one o'clock in the morning, watching the rain come down," Bronson wrote in The Billboard Book of Number One Hits. "(Rabbitt) sang into his tape recorder, 'I love a rainy night, I love a rainy night.'"
Texan Tanya Tucker Scores a No. 1 Country Song for A Rainy Day
Nevertheless, men don’t hold a monopoly on crooning rain songs, thanks to the Seminole, Texas-born Tanya Tucker, who has been singing country music since she was at least 6. Once commonly referred to as country music’s “Texas Tornado,” the now Tennessee-based Tucker, with nearly four decades as a country hit-maker to her credit, has encountered a rain-soaked song or two in her time.
Among the former Academy of Country Music prize-winner’s discography is 1978’s Lizzie and The Rain Man, which was a No. 1 for a then-16-year-old honky-tonk songstress. And prior that, in 1973, she was in a rainy state of mine with her Rainy Girl release, wherein she shared that” just like the rain my love will pour,” among other rainy-day sentiments.
Country Star Records Timeless Rain Song Before His Untimely Death
Perhaps one of those most vocally stirring rain songs of any genre, however, belongs to country singer Keith Whitley, who continued to have success on the charts even after his 1989 death at age 34. The Kentucky son scored a smash with both country radio and fans with the seemingly autobiographical No Stranger to the Rain, which was the third of a five-song string of No. 1 songs that Whitley achieved the year of his untimely passing.
Just like a good book, a country song is yet another wonderful way to fill the day, especially when the storm clouds roll in.
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