Luke Bryan takes a trip down memory lane in Billboard Chart History, revisiting the songs and stories behind his biggest hits. He reflects on how “Rain Is a Good Thing” became his first Billboard No. 1, the emotion behind “Drink a Beer,” the making of fan favorites such as “Country Girl (Shake It for Me)” and “One Margarita,” and the moments that shaped his career. Watch as Bryan looks back on the music, collaborators and memories behind his chart history.
Luke Bryan: Hey, I’m Luke Bryan, and this is my Billboard Chart History.
[Song snippets play] Oh my God. This is my song. I’ve been listening to the radio all night long / Start washing all our worries down the drain. Rain is a good thing.
With “Rain Is a Good Thing,” obviously seeing the video brings back so many memories. I was right outside of my college town. I think it was our first farm tour show ever. The beauty of that video is it’s just really, really me in a nutshell. I mean, we didn’t have a super big video budget. We just, we knew we had a great little show to video. We knew we could make the video for “Rain Is a Good Thing.” And just watching the fans interact and me interacting with them brings back really a special time in my career, where I’m praying every day that I can build my career.
And the best way to build your career is to have your first No. 1 song on Billboard, and obviously “Rain Is a Good Thing” was that. And I wrote it with one of my best friends in the world, Dallas Davidson. We were still relatively young writers, and we took a phrase that we grew up hearing in South Georgia: “Well, rain makes corn, corn makes whiskey, here’s, you know, cheers, boys.” And the fact that we were able to take something that we heard as young men and go on to have it become my first Billboard No. 1 was really, really incredible. And the president of my record label at the time, Mike Dungan, heard it. He just really believed in what it said: Rain makes corn, corn makes whiskey.
We didn’t have a signature lick. J.T. Corenflos, he created that signature lick. It was truly genius what he did there, and I remember walking out the studio going, “Man, what are you doing with your fingers?” And I remember getting home one night, and he had showed me, and I spent, like, five days. And finally, I kinda mastered it, but the fact that he was able to do it like that was pretty special. Washing all our worries down the drain.
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