Eddie Rabbitt was a country singer and songwriter, but this was a huge crossover hit, going to #1 on the Pop, Adult Contemporary and Country charts. The song is about the peaceful and cleansing feeling a thunderstorm can bring.
According to The Billboard Book of #1 Hits, Rabbitt first got the idea for the song in the '60s when he was sitting in his small apartment on a rainy night. He sang, "I love a rainy night, I love a rainy night" into a tape recorder, but didn't complete the song until 1980, when he discovered the tape in his basement. He finished the song with the help of fellow songwriters Even Stevens and David Malloy.
Even Stevens told The Tennessean that whenever the songwriting trio got together, Rabbitt would bring up the 'rainy night' song title: "He really didn't have the melody, but he had this little idea," said Stevens, "and he says, 'I just thought, one night, I wasn't depressed during a rainstorm. I was really happy, and I put this little thing down. We ought to write that.' He'd bring it up, and I'd go, 'Eh, I don't know what to do with it.'... And then one night, it just clicked."
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