Musical Monday - I Love a Rainy Night by Eddie Rabbitt

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: February 28, 1981 through March 7, 1981.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: The week of February 21, 1981.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: Never.

Ever since Glen Campbell had a huge hit on both the Country and Pop charts in 1975 with Rhinestone Cowboy, the Holy Grail of every country music artist was to replicate this success with a crossover hit of their own. In 1981, Eddie Rabbitt accomplished this feat with I Love a Rainy Night, a kind of fluffy song about how much the singer loves thunderstorms. As with Celebration, there isn't a whole lot of subtext to this song, as it is about exactly what it says it is about. The singer likes rainy nights, likes feeling the rain on his face, watching the lightning on the horizon, and listening to the thunder in the distance. The only real metaphorical note in the song is when the singer says that a rainy night washes their cares away and leaves behind a new sunny day the next morning. It is a feel-good song and that's pretty much it.

This song reminds me that memories are not always entirely accurate. In my memory, this song seemed almost inescapable in 1981. If you had asked me how big of a hit this song was before I went back and got the data for this week's Musical Monday, I probably would have guessed that it had been at the number one spot on the charts for a month or more. My recollection of this time period was that this song was everywhere, and if you had the radio on you were going to hear it several times a day every day for months on end. The reality appears to have been slightly more modest.

On a kind of quirky side note, this song was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Cash Box Top 100 back to back with Dolly Parton's crossover hit 9 to 5, but on the Billboard chart this song followed 9 to 5 at the top spot, while on the Cash Box chart this song hit the peak position first.

Previous Musical Monday: Celebration by Kool and the Gang

Subsequent Musical Monday: 9 to 5 by Dolly Parton

Previous #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: 9 to 5 by Dolly Parton

Subsequent #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Keep On Lovin' You by REO Speedwagon

Previous #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Celebration by Kool and the Gang

Subsequent #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: 9 to 5 by Dolly Parton

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

Eddie Rabbitt     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home