"Rainy Night in Georgia" | ||||
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Single by Brook Benton | ||||
from the album Brook Benton Today | ||||
B-side | "Where Do I Go From Here?" | |||
Released | December 1969 [1] | |||
Recorded | 1969 | |||
Studio | Criteria (Miami) | |||
Genre | R&B, soul | |||
Length | 3:29 | |||
Label | Cotillion/Atlantic | |||
Songwriter(s) | Tony Joe White | |||
Producer(s) | Arif Mardin | |||
Brook Benton singles chronology | ||||
|
"Rainy Night in Georgia" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by Randy Crawford | ||||
from the album Secret Combination | ||||
B-side | "I Got Myself A Happy Song" | |||
Released | 1981 | |||
Genre | R&B | |||
Length | 4:22 | |||
Label | Warner Bros. Records | |||
Songwriter(s) | Tony Joe White | |||
Producer(s) | Tommy LiPuma | |||
Randy Crawford singles chronology | ||||
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"Rainy Night in Georgia" is a song written by Tony Joe White in 1967 and popularized by R&B vocalist Brook Benton in 1970. It was originally released by White on his 1969 album, Continued , on Monument Records, shortly before Benton's hit single was issued.
In a January 17, 2014, interview with music journalist Ray Shasho, Tony Joe White explained the thought process behind the making of "Rainy Night in Georgia" and "Polk Salad Annie".
When I got out of high school I went to Marietta, Georgia, I had a sister living there. I went down there to get a job and I was playing guitar too at the house and stuff. I drove a dump truck for the highway department and when it would rain you didn't have to go to work. You could stay home and play your guitar and hangout all night. So those thoughts came back to me when I moved on to Texas about three months later. I heard "Ode to Billie Joe" on the radio and I thought, man, how real, because I am Billie Joe, I know that life. I've been in the cotton fields. So I thought if I ever tried to write, I'm going to write about something I know about. At that time I was doing a lot of Elvis and John Lee Hooker onstage with my drummer. No original songs and I hadn't really thought about it. But after I heard Bobbie Gentry I sat down and thought ... well I know about Polk because I had ate a bunch of it and I knew about rainy nights because I spent a lot of rainy nights in Marietta, Georgia. So I was real lucky with my first tries to write something that was not only real and hit pretty close to the bone, but lasted that long. So it was kind of a guide for me then on through life to always try to write what I know about. [2]
In 1969, after several years without a major hit, Benton had signed to a new record label, Cotillion Records (a subsidiary of Atlantic Records), by label A&R chief and producer Jerry Wexler. Benton recorded the song in November 1969 with arranger/producer Arif Mardin at Criteria Studios in Miami, Florida. [3] Session personnel on the record included Billy Carter on organ, Dave Crawford on piano, Cornell Dupree and Jimmy O'Rourke on guitar, Harold Cowart on bass, Tubby Ziegler on drums, and Toots Thielemans on harmonica. [4]
Included on his "come-back" album Brook Benton Today, the melancholy song became an instant hit. In the spring of 1970, the song had topped the Billboard Best Selling Soul Singles chart. It also reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100, [5] and number two on the Adult Contemporary chart. In Canada, the song made #2 on the RPM Magazine Hot Singles chart, #2 on the AC Chart, and #58 in the 1970 Year End Chart.
The RIAA certified the single gold for sales of one million copies. In 2004, it was ranked #498 on the List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Randy Crawford's version from the album Secret Combination reached No. 18 in the UK Singles Chart in 1981. [6]
Joe South was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. Best known for his songwriting, South won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1970 for "Games People Play" and was again nominated for the award in 1972 for "Rose Garden".
Benjamin Franklin Peay, better known as Brook Benton, was an American singer and songwriter who was popular with rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and pop music audiences during the late 1950s and early 1960s, with hits such as "It's Just a Matter of Time" and "Endlessly", many of which he co-wrote.
"Ode to Billie Joe" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bobbie Gentry released by Capitol Records in July 1967, and later used as the title-track of her debut album. Five weeks after its release, the song topped Billboard's Pop singles chart. It also appeared in the top 10 of the Adult Contemporary and Hot R&B singles charts, and in the top 20 of the Hot Country Songs list.
Tony Joe White, nicknamed the Swamp Fox, was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist, best known for his 1969 hit "Polk Salad Annie" and for "Rainy Night in Georgia", which he wrote but which was first made popular by Brook Benton in 1970. He also wrote "Steamy Windows" and "Undercover Agent for the Blues", both hits for Tina Turner in 1989; those two songs came by way of Turner's producer at the time, Mark Knopfler, who was a friend of White. "Polk Salad Annie" was also recorded by Joe Dassin, Elvis Presley, Joe Bonamassa and Tom Jones.
"Suspicious Minds" is a 1968 song written and first recorded by the American songwriter Mark James. After this recording failed commercially, it was recorded by Elvis Presley with the producer Chips Moman. Presley's version reached No.1 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
William Lance Swan is an American country singer-songwriter, best known for his 1974 single "I Can Help".
"Polk Salad Annie" is a 1968 song written and performed by Tony Joe White. Its lyrics describe the lifestyle of a poor rural Southern girl and her family. Traditionally, the term to describe the type of food highlighted in the song is polk or poke salad, a cooked greens dish made from pokeweed. Its 1969 single release peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. In Canada, the song made No. 10 on the RPM Magazine Hot Singles chart. Elvis Presley's version also made the song popular.
The Genius Hits the Road is a 1960 album by Ray Charles. The concept album focuses on songs written about various parts of the United States. It peaked at number nine on the pop album charts and produced a US #1 single, "Georgia on My Mind".
"One Night" is a song written by Dave Bartholomew, Pearl King, and Anita Steinman. It originally was an R&B hit for Smiley Lewis in 1956, before being recorded with greater commercial success by Elvis Presley in 1957.
"Steamy Windows" is a song by American-Swiss singer Tina Turner. It was included on Turner's seventh studio album, Foreign Affair (1989), and released as the album's second single in November 1989. In the United Kingdom, it was instead issued as the third single on February 5, 1990. It was written by Tony Joe White and produced by Dan Hartman. It became a top ten hit in Belgium, Ireland and Italy, while reaching the top forty on the majority of all charts it appeared on.
"Down in the Boondocks" is a song written by Joe South, and first recorded by American artist Billy Joe Royal as his debut single. It was a hit in 1965, reaching No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In the UK, it hit No. 38 on the Record Retailer chart. In Canada, it reached No. 1 on the RPM chart, on August 9, 1965. The song is the title track of Royal's second album, Down in the Boondocks.
...Continued is the second album released by Tony Joe White. It was released on Monument Records and contained the single Roosevelt and Ira Lee It was recorded at Monument Studios, Nashville and Lyn-Lou Studios, Memphis in 1969. It was produced by Billy Swan and engineered by Tommy Strong and Mort Thomasson.
Sammy Lee Creason was an American session drummer who played with Tony Joe White, Kris Kristofferson and Bob Dylan amongst others.
"Callin' Baton Rouge" is a country music song written by Dennis Linde. The song has been recorded by multiple artists since its composition. It was notably recorded by American country singer and songwriter Garth Brooks whose version was a chart-topping single in the 1990s.
The Man I Want to Be is the second studio album by American country music artist Chris Young. It was released on September 1, 2009 via RCA Nashville. The album includes the singles "Voices", "Gettin' You Home ", and "The Man I Want to Be", all of which reached Number One single on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
"Walking the Floor Over You" is a country music song written by Ernest Tubb, recorded on April 26, 1941 in Fort Worth, Texas, and released in the United States that year.
Foreverly is a collaborative album by Green Day singer/guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong and jazz/pop singer-songwriter Norah Jones. It was released on November 25, 2013, through Reprise Records.
"For Ol' Times Sake'" is a song by Tony Joe White, covered in 1973 by Elvis Presley.
Secret Combination is an album by the American R&B singer Randy Crawford, released in 1981 on Warner Bros. Records.
"I've Got a Thing About You Baby" is a song by Tony Joe White, released in 1972 as a single from his album The Train I'm On. It was notably covered by Elvis Presley.
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