I’ve played this one twice, the last time in 2020, but tonight I’m playing it again. Why? Oh, I dunno … just had a notion to play it again … I needed something to lift me up a little bit. This is a three-for one … Brook Benton, Aaron Neville, and Randy Crawford! Surely you can find one of them to like!
Written by Tony Joe White in 1967 and popularized by R&B vocalist Brook Benton in 1970, this song has been recorded by a host of other artists as well, including Ray Charles, Randy Crawford, Johnny Rivers, Hank Williams, BJ Thomas and others.
The backstory by Tony Joe White …
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.
The Brook Benton version is the most popular …
But I’ve always been partial to Aaron Neville …
But Randy Crawford does it up well, too …
Take your pick!
Rainy Night in Georgia
Brook Benton/Aaron Neville/Randy Crawford
Hoverin’ by my suitcase
Tryin’ to find a warm place to spend the night
A heavy rain a fallin’
Seems I hear your voice callin’
“It’s all right”
A rainy night in Georgia
A rainy night in Georgia
I believe it’s rainin’ all over the world
Neon signs a flashin’
Taxi cabs and busses passin’ through the night
The distant moanin’ of a train
Seems to play a sad refrain to the night
A rainy night in Georgia
A rainy night in Georgia
I believe it’s rainin’ all over the world
How many times I’ve wondered
It still comes out the same
No matter how you look at it, think of it
You just got to do your own thing
I find me a place in a box car
So I take out my guitar to pass some time
Late at night when it’s hard to rest
I hold your picture to my chest
And I’m all right
A rainy night in Georgia
A rainy night in Georgia
I believe it’s rainin’ all over the world
Songwriters: Tony White / Tony Joe White
Rainy Night in Georgia by Brook Benton lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Filosofa's Word 
Jill, great song. I do like the Brook Benton version the best as it is the one I remember. Keith
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Brook’s version is a bit more … soulful, but I like all three. I’m really glad you enjoyed the music! What would life be without music?
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i THINK i’LL HAVE TO PASS ON AARON NEVILLE.NO-ONE APPROACHES THE WARMTH OF BROOK BENTON FOR ME.BUT I DO LIKE RANDY CRAWFORD.
Cwtch
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I like all three, but still like Neville’s the best. At any rate, I’m glad you enjoyed the music.
Cwtch
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This song makes you enjoy the coziness of a rainy day or night. Each version is beautiful by itself.
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Definitely so! I’m glad you enjoyed it!
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😊👍
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There is something about Aaron’s voice that surpasses the original. Randy 8s okay, but she does not come close to Brook in my mind.
(Is it an American thing? “Busses” in Canada refers to kisses. “Buses” are public transit vehicles.)
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I never ever heard of kisses referred to as busses! You are right about the big things that haul people around being ‘buses’ with only one ‘s’, but busses with two ‘ss’ usually refers to cleaning up tables in a restaurant!
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There’s another meaning of buss. There are more. But buses be vehicles. The good old Engl7sh language reuses words so often it is amazing anyone can understand each other.
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Indeed, I find the English language to be very confusing … Spanish is so much simpler. But then, I see the Japanese alphabet and … I’ll stick with English!
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People born with the Japanese alphabet have no trouble with it (as far as we know). The problem with English is not the alphabet, but the number of vowels in it. Add a few more vowel sounds and we could make millons of new words. But according to speech experts, our mouths and tongues can only make 5 vowel sounds. We need to try harder!
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True. The number of vowels (there are only 5) doesn’t bother me, but the multiple ways they can be pronounced does. PLUS … it seems that every single ‘rule’ of grammar that we learned in school has more exceptions than it does cases that follow the ‘rule’. Such as “i before e, except after c”. About half the time, that rule is wrong! And pronouncing a new word simply by looking at it is an exercise in futility. That’s what I love about the Spanish language. Every letter has one and only one sound, the accent is always on the last syllable except where the word ends in ‘n’ or ‘s’, and that’s really all you need to know to be able to read and pronounce any word!
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Foreign la guages are my bane. They use skunds my earx cannot distinguish. For example, in Ukrainian and Polush, so probably in Russian too, there are so many silibants, but to me they all sound like esses or shs. I studied the languages for a year, and ended up only learning words without silibant sound in them. Maybe I shoulda too Spanish, but there was so little use for it in Canada in my youth. I could read and write Francais, but I could not hear or speak it.
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I agree on the eastern European languages … my tongue gets twisted even trying to say most words or names. I think Spanish is the simplest language on the planet … and it’s pleasing to the ear, too.
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It is pleasing to the ear, except in that I would have no or little idea of what was being said. To me, it is a “peligro” to try to speak it. (Probably used incorrectly, but then that’s the danger, n’est-ce pas?)
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Sí, lo es
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Yes, it is??? (Yes, something is.)
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But beware when talking to them Brits like Roger, Clive and David, for their version of English isn’t always the same as ours! I’ve embarrassed myself a few times, like the time I told David I had “bonked” my head!!!
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That could have surprised me too, but my vocabulary is large enough to include different meanings for bonked, just like for bussed (bused).
English is a fantastic language for creating slang. Boff, bonk, bang, and many others all can mean the same thing, intercourse, but then intercourse itself can mean discussion between two or more people.
So you were really saying you had a conversation with yourself, “Jill, why the hell are you hitting your head agsinst the brick wall!” Right?
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No, I had actually hit my head on a shelf … no sex or innuendo at all!!! 🤣
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Yup, got that. But had Roger said that, I would have thought differently.
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Ha ha … oh yeah, for sure! Though Roger is too polite to say such a thing …
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Naw, I don’t think so. But ge would definitely be aware of his audience. 😇
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“Surely you can find one of them to like” – guess what? 🤣
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{GASP} Y-you mean … you liked them ALL??? Wow, Clive … I’m so glad! 🤣
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Er…
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🤣 I know, I know … I tried to do better today, but I’m not laying odds …
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We’ll see 😉
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