Album · Tom Waits
Rain Dogs by Tom Waits
Rain Dogs is an album by Tom Waits, released in 1985. 4 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 12 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “Downtown Train”, on 8 lists with a best position of #127.
Rain Dogs, Tom Waits's ninth studio album, came out on Island in September 1985, and it's the sound of a songwriter who has torn up the floorboards and started banging on the plumbing. Waits produced it himself, the middle panel of a loose trilogy between Swordfishtrombones and Franks Wild Years, made after he'd married Kathleen Brennan, cut loose from his old label and settled in New York.
The city is all over it: a ramshackle concept record about New York's down-and-out, growled in that gravel-pit voice over clanking rhythms, dirty blues, Kurt Weill cabaret and New Orleans funeral brass. Keith Richards and Marc Ribot bring the guitars, Ribot all jagged angles. "Downtown Train" later found a second life when Rod Stewart covered it, and Rolling Stone went on to rank the album 21st among the best of the 1980s.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from Rain Dogs on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Downtown Train | 8 | #127 | – | 2007–2026 | |
| 2 | Jockey Full of Bourbon | 2 | #434 | – | 2019–2023 | |
| 3 | Time | 1 | #569 | – | 2004 | |
| 4 | Singapore | 1 | #517 | – | 2024 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.