"I Love a Rainy Night" | ||||
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Single by Eddie Rabbitt | ||||
from the album Horizon | ||||
B-side | "Short Road to Love" | |||
Released | November 10, 1980 | |||
Recorded | 1980 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 3:08 | |||
Label | Elektra | |||
Songwriter(s) |
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Producer(s) | David Malloy | |||
Eddie Rabbitt singles chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Billboard | (unrated) [2] |
"I Love a Rainy Night" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Eddie Rabbitt. It was released in November 1980 as the second single from his album Horizon . It reached number one on the Hot Country Singles, [3] Billboard Hot 100, and Adult Contemporary Singles [4] charts in early 1981. It was written by Rabbitt, Even Stevens, and David Malloy.
According to music historian Fred Bronson, "I Love a Rainy Night" was 12 years in the making. Rabbitt had a collection of old tapes he kept in the basement of his home. While rummaging through the tapes one day in 1980, he heard a fragment of a song he had recorded one rainy night in the late 1960s.
"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," wrote Bronson in The Billboard Book of Number One Hits. "He sang into his tape recorder, 'I love a rainy night, I love a rainy night.'"
Upon rediscovery of the old lyrics, Rabbitt completed the song (with help from frequent songwriting partners Even Stevens and David Malloy) and recorded it.
The result included vivid descriptions of a man's fondness for thunderstorms and the peace it brings him ("I love to hear the thunder/watch the lightnin' when it lights up the sky/you know it makes me feel good") and a renewed sense of hope the storms bring ("Showers wash all my cares away/I wake up to a sunny day").
The song's other distinctive feature is its rhythmic pattern of alternating finger snaps and hand claps, which was included with the help of percussionist Farrell Morris, who, according to The Billboard Book of Number One Country Hits, mixed two tracks of each to complete the record.
On February 28, the song succeeded Dolly Parton's hit film theme song "9 to 5" in the number-one position on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart. On March 14, Parton's song returned to the top spot – the last time that the pop chart featured back-to-back "country" singles in the top position until August 2023, when Jason Aldean's "Try That in a Small Town" succeeded "Last Night" by Morgan Wallen. [5]
"I Love a Rainy Night" came during Rabbitt's peak popularity as a crossover artist. The follow-up to "Drivin' My Life Away" (number one country, number five Hot 100), the song was Rabbitt's only Hot 100 number one. But his crossover success continued with the follow-ups "Step by Step" and "You and I" (the latter a duet with Crystal Gayle).
On Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart, it was his eighth out of 17 career chart-toppers, spanning from 1976 to 1990.
"I Love a Rainy Night" was certified gold for sales of one million units by the Recording Industry Association of America. [6]
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All-time charts
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Edward Thomas Rabbitt was an American country music singer and songwriter. His career began as a songwriter in the late 1960s, springboarding to a recording career after composing hits such as "Kentucky Rain" for Elvis Presley in 1970 and "Pure Love" for Ronnie Milsap in 1974. Later in the 1970s, Rabbitt helped to develop the crossover-influenced sound of country music prevalent in the 1980s with such hits as "Suspicions", "I Love a Rainy Night", and "Every Which Way but Loose". His duets "Both to Each Other " with Juice Newton and "You and I" with Crystal Gayle later appeared on the soap operas Days of Our Lives and All My Children.
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Anthology is a compilation album by country pop singer Juice Newton. It was originally released by Renaissance Records on October 13, 1998. The album covers her career from 1975 to 1989 and features 19 songs taken from her albums Juice Newton & Silver Spur, Juice, Quiet Lies, Can't Wait All Night, Old Flame, Emotion, and Ain't Gonna Cry. However, it includes the 1975 take of "The Sweetest Thing " from the first RCA album, not the 1981 hit version from Juice.
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