TALENT OF TONY JOE WHITE - Rainy Night In Georgia - HANK WILLIAMS, JR

RAINY NIGHT IN GEORGIA
(Tony Joe White)
HANK WILLIAMS, JR

Randall Hank Williams (born May 26, 1949), better known as Hank Williams, Jr. and Bocephus, is an American country singer-songwriter and musician. His musical style is often considered a blend of Southern rock, blues, and traditional country. He is the son of legendary country music singer Hank Williams and the father of Hank Williams III, Holly Williams, Hilary Williams, Samuel Williams, and Katie Williams.

Williams began his career by following in his famed father's footsteps, singing his father's songs and imitating his father's style. Williams's own style slowly evolved as he struggled to find his own voice and place within the country music industry. This trend was interrupted by a near-fatal fall off the side of Ajax Peak in Montana on August 8, 1975. After an extended recovery, he challenged the country music establishment with a blend of country, rock, and blues. Williams enjoyed much success in the 1980s, from which he earned considerable recognition and popularity both inside and outside the country music industry.

As a multi-instrumentalist, Williams's repertoire of skills include guitar, bass guitar, upright bass, steel guitar, banjo, dobro, piano, keyboards, harmonica, fiddle, and drums.

From 1989 until October 2011, a version of his song "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight" was used as the opening for broadcasts of Monday Night Football.

Tony Joe White (born July 23, 1943, Oak Grove, Louisiana, United States) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist, best known for his 1969 hit "Polk Salad Annie" and for "Rainy Night in Georgia", which he wrote but was first made popular by Brook Benton in 1970. He also wrote "Steamy Windows" and "Undercover Agent For The Blues" both big hits for Tina Turner in 1989; those two songs came by way of Tina's producer at the time, Mark Knopfler, who's a friend of Tony. "Polk Salad Annie" was also recorded by Elvis Presley and Tom Jones.

Biography - 1960s--1970s - In 1967, White signed with Monument Records, which operated from a recording studio in the Nashville suburb of Hendersonville, Tennessee, and produced a variety of sounds, including rock and roll, country and Western, and rhythm and blues. Billy Swan was his producer.

Over the next three years, White released four singles with no commercial success stateside, although "Soul Francisco" was a hit in France. "Polk Salad Annie" had been released for nine months and written off as a failure by his record label when it finally entered the U.S. charts in July 1969. It climbed into the Top Ten by early August, eventually reaching No. 8, becoming White's biggest hit.

White's first album, 1969's Black and White, was recorded with Muscle Shoals/Nashville musicians David Briggs, Norbert Putnam, and Jerry Carrigan, and featured "Willie and Laura Mae Jones" and "Polk Salad Annie", along with covers of Jimmy Webb's "Wichita Lineman". "Willie and Laura Mae Jones" was covered by Dusty Springfield on her album "Dusty in Memphis" also recorded in 1969.

Three more singles quickly followed, all minor hits, and White toured with Steppenwolf, Sly & the Family Stone, Creedence Clearwater Revival and other major rock acts of the 1970s, playing in France, Germany, Belgium, Sweden and England.

In 1973, White appeared in the film Catch My Soul, a rock-opera adaption of Shakespeare's Othello. White played and sang four and composed seven songs for the musical.

Hoverin' by my suitcase
Tryin' to find a warm place to spend the night
A heavy rain a fallin' seems
I hear your voice a callin' it's all right
On this rainy night in Georgia
A rainy night in Georgia

Hoverin' by my suitcase
Tryin' to find a warm place to spend the night
A heavy rain a fallin' seems
I hear your voice a callin' it's all right
On this rainy night in Georgia
A rainy night in Georgia
I believe it's rainin' all over the world
Neon signs a flashin' taxicabs and buses
Passin' through the night
The distant moanin' of a train
Seems to play a sad refrain onto the night
On this rainy night in Georgia
Such a rainy night in Georgia
I think, it's rainin' all over the world
How many times I have wondered
But it always comes out the same
No matter how I look at it'll think about it
It's just like some of its pleasures
Some of its pain
I find me a place in a boxcar
So I take out my guitar to pass some time
Late at night when it's hard to rest
I hold your picture to my chest
And then I'm all right
But it's still a rainy night in Georgia
It's a rainy night in Georgia
I believe it must be rainin' all over this world
All over the world rainy night in Georgia...