My top ten classic rock and pop songs about rain are a good tonic to listen to when you’re down. My top ten classic rock and pop songs about rain are also good to play when it’s raining outside. Here they are: my top ten classic rock and pop songs about rain, which include two by Enya. Stay dry and cozy while reading on…
Rainy Days And Mondays, by The Carpenters, from the 1971 album The Carpenters
This Number One smash hit adult contemporary pop rock song isn’t the most inspirational of classic pop rock songs about rain, because it talks about depression and the only way to alleviate it is by being with the one you love. Still, Karen Carpenter sings songs like no else can with her angelic voice. She died too early, and those who’ve seen the movie about her life or have read about her untimely passing in 1983 know she had a lot of real life “rainy days and Mondays.
Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head, by B.J. Thomas, from the 1969 movie soundtrack to Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid
This is one of those personal top ten classic rock and pop songs about rain that instantly remind me of one of the most famous American movies of all time. I have a love-mocking relationship with this song, because when B.J. Thomas sings in his “don’t worry, be happy” way, I’ve always thought he had this attitude that he could be worry-free if he was well-off financially. Even as a kid, I thought that of him being rich, rightly or wrongly, which made me think he could be so ever optimistic, even when it’s raining – like he walks between the raindrops!
Rain, by The Beatles, from the 1970 album Hey Jude
This psychedelic-sounding classic rock song about rain is a favorite personal top ten tune about this particular subject matter. It originally charted as a Top 40 hit four years earlier as the b-side to the chart-topping Paperback Writer single, but had yet to make an album lineup until Hey Jude was released.
The Rain, by Oran “Juice” Jones, from the 1986 album Oran “Juice” Jones
Of my favorite songs about rain, this ranks first out of the personal top ten classic rock and pop songs I’ve listed! This rainy day song is the first one that comes to my mind when it begins to rain. I love to sing the lyrics to myself “I saw you walking in the rain…You were holding hands, and I’ll never be the same” as the rain beats down on me when I’m running or when I’m in the house and can hear the raindrops beating down . This 1986 Top 10 hit pop rock song is about catching your lover with another. I love the smooth intensity of this tune!
Stormy, by Classics IV, from the 1968 album Mamas And Papas/Soul Train
Of my favorite rock and pop songs about rain, this ranks second of all time out of my favorite top ten I’m writing about because it has a special place in my soul. I first became familiar with this 1968 hit some 33 years after it achieved Top 5 pop chart status as I was flying home from Spain in early December of 2001, thanks to the repeated playing of this classic rock and pop song on the in flight music selection. I was starting to feel very depressed, which would last almost a month. I kept thinking about the lyrics which went “Oh stormy, Oh stormy, Bring back that sunny day“. I started to feel better after Christmas.
Rainy Day People, by Gordon Lightfoot, from the 1975 album Cold On The Shoulder
This is one of my favorite classic rock and pop songs about rain, (and) which has got a twan-gy country music feel to it. Furthermore, this is one of those personal top ten rainy day songs that isn’t really sad-sounding at all, as it talks about the perfectly ideal people we all wish we knew, especially when things aren’t going well, but unfortunately life isn’t that accommodating all the time.
Rain, by Madonna, from the 1992 album Erotica
I really dig this pop rock song by Madonna because she sings with real sincerity, and even makes the rain not seem so depressing, for as I study the lyrics, I see she equates being with a lover with the falling rain. The wordplay with the actual weather event and romance itself is mixed beautifully, making it one of my personal top ten songs about rain. Because of the relative young age of the song, it could be awhile before it’s considered a classic rock and/or classic pop hit.
Smoky Mountain Rain, by Ronnie Milsap, from his 1980 Greatest Hits album
Back in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s especially, country music songs would cross over to the pop rock charts, with many of them becoming forever classic, like this nicely paced Top 40 hit tune by one of my favorite singers who wouldn’t let personal tragedy keep him from becoming a music icon who’s sung a lot of great songs. What an emotionally penetrating personal top ten of songs about rain about looking for your lost love!
A Day Without Rain, by Enya, from the 2000 album, A Day Without Rain
This is one of my favorite songs about rain (an instrumental), which is piano-driven and opens Enya’s 2000 album with the same name. This is one of those personal top ten works that you can listen to when you’re feeling sad for whatever reason, including for weather reasons, as cloudy and rainy weather can affect one’s mood to where one needs to listen to some good classic rock and pop music songs about rain.
It’s In The Rain, by Enya, from the 2005 album Amarantine
This beautiful song by Enya is hopeful because it basically proclaims that nothing sad lasts forever, for a better day will come. My ears can hear the haunting but optimistic quality in this, one of the pop rock songs about rain, and one of my top ten favorites. Enya is my favorite female artist of all time, and while I feel her songs are sometimes “preachy”, they are in such a way that they’re not a turn off, but songs that absorb into my soul lovingly. I’ve written an Associated Content article about my favorite ten Enya songs here
Chart Information Sources for this article about classic rock and pop songs about rain:
Joel Whitburn, The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 6th Edition (1996)
Joel Whitburn, Joel Whitburn’s Top Pop Albums: 1955-1996 (1996)
