The Friday Five: Storm Songs

The Friday Five 1 Minute

When we left the house to come to Starbucks this afternoon, the area was under a severe thunderstorm watch. After we were here about five minutes, this is what we were looking at…

So, I had my theme: songs with “storm” in the title, with one exception…

Thunder and Lightning – Chi Coltrane This was the first song that came to mind, as we were getting thunder and lightning before the rain you just saw. Chi’s almost a one-hit wonder; she had a #1 hit in The Netherlands with “Go Like Elijah” in 1975, a song that only reached #94 in the US that year, although it got “considerable airplay,” according to Wikipedia. This one reached #17 on the Hot 100 in 1972.

Riders on the Storm – The Doors The Doors’ last #1 hit, released after the death of Jim Morrison in 1971. It was on the L. A. Woman album, and reached #14 on the Hot 100.

Stormy Weather – Billie Holiday A jazz standard, done by artists such as Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, Ethel Waters and others. Here’s Lady Day’s version.

Stormy Monday – B. B. King A blues standard. Most of the biggest names in the blues have done this one, as well as The Allman Brothers, Cream, and other rock acts. Ain’t no bigger name in the blues than B. B. King, who’s playing this one with Albert King, if I heard correctly.

Ridin’ The Storm Out – REO Speedwagon The pride of the University of Illinois, they started in 1967 and played a lot of the clubs in the Chicago area on their way to international fame. This is from their 1973 album of the same name; a live version charted at #94 in 1977.

Have any favorite “storm” songs? Let me know in the comments. That’s your Friday Five on this soggy afternoon, June 17, 2016.

Published by John Holton

Internet disc jockey, lover of old TV (especially the commercials), inveterate wise guy.

Published

12 thoughts on “The Friday Five: Storm Songs”

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  3. I enjoyed your stormy songs, John. I wrote a post about rain songs, then another about storms. I used to write long essays and my tags are diverse on my full page blog posts. 🙂

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  4. The mention of “Thunder and Lightning” brought to mind another song of the same name by the group Grapefruit which was one of the first groups signed to the Apple record label. I have their first two albums–I think they’re kind of interesting. At one time I was convinced that the band was actually the precursor to Badfinger, but I guess not.

    Here’s their “Thunder and Lightning”:

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  5. I knew everyone, but BB King’s. Nope never heard that one that’s for sure. Guess there’s a first for everything, huh? Well, bedtime for Bonzo… Daddy’s got a gig tomorrow!

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  8. Storm songs are great! “Riders on the Storm” is a favorite! Here’s a couple I thought of: “Listen to the Rhythm of the Falling Rain” by the Cascades, and “I Love a Rainy Night” by Eddie Rabbitt. 🙂

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  9. Here’s a cool cover of a Bruce Cockburn song “Mistress of Storms”–I think you might appreciate this one or at least the original by Cockburn:

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  10. I was going to mention Eddie Floyd too. More obscure: The folk singer-songwriter Kris Delmhorst has a whole album called “Songs for a Hurricane” where every song is literally or metaphorically about storms.

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  11. The Carpenters “Rainy Days and Mondays” comes to mind as does Eurythmics “Here Comes the Rain Again” and if you’re looking for a bit of a stretch – Eddie Floyd’s “Knock on Wood”
    “Baby it’s Cold Outside” and “Let it Snow” or even “Like A Hurricane” are good, too.

    Mary
    Jingle Jangle Jungle

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