“Rockin’ With the Rhythm of the Rain”
The Judds
Written by Brent Maher and Don Schlitz
Radio & Records
#1 (2 weeks)
June 27 – July 4, 1986
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
August 9, 1986
After several hit songs that leaned into the tender side of love, like “Mama’s He’s Crazy” and “Love is Alive,” The Judds were ready to get their grooves on.
Perhaps a song about getting down and dirty to the rhythm of the rain isn’t an obvious choice for a mother-daughter duet, but who cares when the results are as on fire as this?
We get Wynonna at her growliest yet, and Naomi even gets to sing a few lines of her own in the chorus. The jangly acoustic arrangement, the perfectly stacked harmonies, and the playfulness of the lyric all come together perfectly.
The Judds wouldn’t maintain this level of consistency forever – and really, what act could? – but this is yet another classic record from their early days of superstardom.
“Rockin’ With the Rhythm of the Rain” gets an A.
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The Judds didn’t just explode out of the gates, they ran circles around Nashville with the quality of their early material.
It is shocking to revisit how great they sounded with this run of early classics.
The sonic build to the chorus of this song sounds like thunderheads stacking up. The production has an electrical aspect to it.
It still makes the hair in my neck rise.
…the country version of woody allen’s famous – today perhaps slightly infamous – answer to the question, whether sex was dirty: “only when it’s being done right. the judds did this one right, no doubt about it.