Rainy Day Songs

Everybody loves the sun, but when it comes to music and weather pattern match-ups, it's the stormy, wet, and wild atmosphere of rainy days that really inspire. Just ask the Carpenters, who can't shake the gloom on "Rainy Days and Mondays," even while Rihanna and Jay-Z are finding sweet shelter under a dance-pop "Umbrella." Legendary hoofer Gene Kelly makes a big splash for the daddy of all drenched-and-delirious standards, "Singin' In the Rain," while Guns N' Roses unleash a driving hard-rock hurricane on the epic "November Rain."

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"Who'll Stop the Rain," wonder classic rockers Creedence Clearwater Revival, but nasty weather suits singer-songwriter Jack Johnson just fine if it means he can stay inside for a lazy day of love and a tasty batch of "Banana Pancakes." Norah Jones is feeling the lure of the cozy herself, and beckons "Come Away With Me" to her object of desire; but Tracy Chapman dreams of escaping to her day in the sun on the melancholy heart-tugger "Fast Car." And as the raindrops dry, jazz goddess Ella Fitzgerald is taking a sky-high peek to see what's "Over the Rainbow."

More rainy day greats are in the Deep Cuts forecast.

It's a perfect storm when Deep Southern diva Ann Peebles pours her heart out on a soul-soaked "I Can't Stand the Rain" . . . but Lenny Kravitz reckons she should lighten up a little, and enjoy the moisture, judging by his cloud-surfin' ballad, "I Love the Rain." And, as the Cure walk willingly into a dark and dreary high-pressure system on the atmospheric goth rain dance "Prayers for Rain," Corinne Bailey Rae makes light work of "Another Rainy Day" and Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson looks with hope to the far side of the clouds on the soulful "Rainbows."

It's one artist's downfall and another's safe retreat — the inspiration behind the perfect pop optimism of Burt Bacharach and B.J. Thomas' "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head," and the dark, apocalyptic dream of "Riders on the Storm" by the Doors. It seeps into the moody alt-pop storm front of Coldplay's "Trouble," and sets the stage for American bard Bob Dylan and his legendary story song "Shelter from the Storm." It's nothing more and nothing less than a rainy day, and it makes for an Essentials playlist flooded with everything from the torrential outpourings of Prince & The Revolution's "Purple Rain" to the dark-day soul groove of Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine," to the crooked umbrella smile that is Willie Nelson's raspy take on that sparkling song of hope "The Rainbow Connection."