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Song Stories

“Rainy Night in Georgia”

Brook Benton | 1970

This tale of what it feels like when the whole world is raining and there's no warm place to find became a smash for Brook Benton in 1970, eight years after Tony Jo White penned it. White’s inspiration? "I knew about rainy nights in Georgia because I drove a dump truck for the highway department," he said. In naming it one of the 500 Greatest Songs of all time, Rolling Stone praises "Benton's intimate baritone set over crying violins, crashing horns and dolorous organs and guitars."

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Song Stories

“He Will Break Your Heart”

Jerry Butler | 1960

A lightly swinging Latin-influenced, almost cha-cha groove and close harmonies decorated Jerry Butler's early soul hit "He Will Break Your Heart," delivering a stately warning that his rival would never love his girl like he did. The melody came to Butler as he was driving on the highway from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Philadelphia with Curtis Mayfield, and as Butler told Rolling Stone, "I just sang the melody and Curtis put the chords to it." The song's premise, Butler added, "was something that I'd lived ...The lyric was an experience rather than a revelation. Whereas music is usually a revelation."

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