Everyone loves a good rainy night, especially in the countryside. All those raindrops on the roof all makes us sleepy, making us all sleep like babies. Well, as it turns out, Eddie Rabbit agreed when he released his smash hit I Love a Rainy Night Back in 1980.

The concept of this smash hit began back in the 1960’s. In 1980 Rabbitt was browsing through an old collection of tapes that he had in storage in the basement of his house. Within the collection of tapes, Rabbit heard a recording of himself that triggered memory of him staring out a window late one night watching the rain. During the recording, Rabbitt started to sing the line “I love a rainy night” according to Fred Bronson, a music historian.

When he discovered the recording, Rabbitt decided to finish writing the smash hit with the help of songwriters Even Stevens and David Malloy, with whom he frequently collaborated with. The end result consisted of a song about a man liking thunder storms during a dark and rainy night and how these storms allow for the man to “wake up to a sunny day” with a renewed sense of hopes and ambitions to accomplish. The rhythm of the finger snaps a claps that is featured in the song was included by Farrell Morris, who mixed to separate tracks together.

The song hit both the top spot on the US Hot Country and the US Billboard Hot 100 spots to earn him is 7th #1 hit on the country charts. On February 28th, 1981, the song hit the top position on the Hot 100 chart, surpassing Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5. It stayed at that spot for one week.