Episode 15: Rhythm of the Rain - Songs that Sound Better While it’s Falling

Some songs don’t just mention rain... they seem to belong to it.

In this episode of Who Ordered the Pie?, Christopher explores recordings that sound especially right when the weather turns gray. These aren’t novelty rain songs or metaphor-heavy ballads. They’re records shaped by timing, careers, studios, and circumstance - songs that seem to change depending on when and how you hear them.

From the youthful sincerity of The Cascades’ “Rhythm of the Rain,” recorded by Navy servicemen cutting tracks whenever they could, to Dan Fogelberg’s reflective return to the same song decades later, this episode looks at how perspective alters meaning. Along the way, we step into The Beatles’ experimental mid-60s period with “Rain,” where backward vocals and heavy grooves quietly destabilized pop music, and into the late-career resurgence of Brook Benton with “Rainy Night in Georgia,” a song that lets atmosphere do the emotional work.

The journey continues through Buddy Holly’s understated “Raining in My Heart,” recorded just weeks before his death, Marvin Gaye’s powerful and tragic “I Wish It Would Rain,” Karen Carpenter’s perfectly controlled melancholy on “Rainy Days and Mondays,” and Gordon Lightfoot’s “Early Morning Rain,” a song that traveled across genres before settling back with its writer.

This episode isn’t about rain as drama. It’s about rain as setting — something you move through, accept, and sometimes even welcome.

The cocktail for this episode is The Quiet Storm, a slowed-down, contemplative riff on a Dark and Stormy, designed for long sips and late hours. The full cocktail recipe is available at whoorderedpie.com.

Until next time — here’s to loud riffs, quiet sips, and the stories in between.