A Rainy Night at the Port (Chinese: 港都夜雨; pe̍h ōe jī: Káng-Too Iā-ú) is a Taiwanese Hokkien pop song released in 1958,[1] composed by Yang Sanlang (楊三郎) with lyrics by Lü Chuanzi (呂傳梓). It was inspired by the city of Keelung. Originally, it was composed without lyrics.[1]
In the early 1960s, Yang Sanlang took over as the conductor of the band at the Keelung Landmark Club for American forces in Taiwan, where he also played the trumpet.[2][3] Keelung is known for its rainy weather, and on one such rainy day, Yang suddenly had a burst of inspiration to use the natural minor and the harmonic minor to perform a sad song on the trumpet, which he called "Rain Blues" (雨的BLUES). He played it every day, to the acclaim of the American soldiers in the audience. The song, however, did not have lyrics until the band's pianist, Lü Chuanzi was inspired to write lyrics to the song, describing the grieved feelings of a traveling young man watching the rain one night in the port city of Keelung.[4] After penning the lyrics, Lü handed them over to the composer of "Mend the Broken Net" (補破網), Wang Yunfeng (王雲峰) for editing. The resulting lyrics, paired with Yang's original tune, became a favorite song at the Landmark Club.[5][6]
In 1958, Yang Sanlang had Wu Jinhuai (吳晉淮) perform the song in public, and release the recording.[2]A Protestant group later adapted the tune to new lyrics, turning it into a hymn.
