''Night Rains'' is the eleventh studio album by American singer-songwriter

Janis Ian Janis Ian (born Janis Eddy Fink; April 7, 1951) is an American singer-songwriter who was most commercially successful in the 1960s and 1970s. Her signature songs are the 1966/67 hit " Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking)" and the 1975 Top T ...

, originally released in 1979 on

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

. The commercial failure of her previous self-titled album and its accompanying singles led Columbia to demand Ian make a major change of direction for ''Night Rains'' to restore her commercial fortunes. She initially focused on writing film music for ''

Foxes Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

'' and ''

The Bell Jar ''The Bell Jar'' is the only novel written by the American writer and poet Sylvia Plath. Originally published under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas" in 1963, the novel is semi-autobiographical with the names of places and people changed. The book ...

'', and then adopted a fully commercial pop sound, collaborating with

Albert Hammond Albert Louis Hammond OBE (born 18 May 1944) is a British-Gibraltarian singer, songwriter, and record producer. A prolific songwriter, he also collaborated with other songwriters such as Mike Hazlewood, John Bettis, Diane Warren, Holly Knight ...

of "

It Never Rains in Southern California "It Never Rains in Southern California" is a 1972 song jointly written and composed by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood Michael Edward Hazlewood (24 December 1941 – 6 May 2001)

" fame on one song, and with superstar disco producer

Giorgio Moroder Giovanni Giorgio Moroder (, ; born 26 April 1940) is an Italian composer, songwriter, and record producer. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Disco", Moroder is credited with pioneering euro disco and electronic dance mu ...

on two tracks including the ''Foxes'' theme.

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saxophonist

Clarence Clemons Clarence Anicholas Clemons Jr. (January 11, 1942 – June 18, 2011), also known as The Big Man, was an American musician and actor. From 1972 until his death in 2011, he was the saxophonist for The E Street Band. Clemons released several s ...

played on two songs and jazz pianist

Chick Corea Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea (June 12, 1941 – February 9, 2021) was an American jazz composer, pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and occasional percussionist. His compositions "Spain", " 500 Miles High", "La Fiesta", "Armando's Rhumba", and ...

on "Jenny (Iowa Sunrise)". Consequent upon its release alongside twenty-four other Columbia Records albums in the fall of 1979, ''Night Rains'' was effectively un-promoted by the label in the United States and became Ian's first to not dent the ''Billboard'' albums chart since ''

Present Company ''Present Company'' is the fifth studio album by singer-songwriter Janis Ian, and her solitary album for Capitol Records. After her break-up with original producer Shadow Morton, and the failure of her final two Verve albums '' The Secret Life o ...

''. Even a re-release a year later with much greater record company promotion failed to get ''Night Rains'' onto the chart. Although first single "Here Comes the Night" (Theme from ''The Bell Jar'') did not chart anywhere, second single "Fly Too High" became a top ten hit in the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand, and drove ''Night Rains'' into the top twenty in those markets. "Fly Too High" and third single "The Other Side of the Sun" also became Ian's first-ever chart entries in the United Kingdom, although ''Night Rains'' did not crack the top 75 albums. Subsequent to Ian's 1990s comeback, "Fly Too High" and "Jenny (Iowa Sunrise)" have remained part of her live setlist, and both those songs have appeared on career-spanning compilations.

Track listing

Charts

Certifications

References

{{Janis Ian 1979 albums Janis Ian albums albums produced by Giorgio Moroder Columbia Records albums