Written by McCartney, the song aligns the black and white keys of a piano keyboard with the theme of racial harmony.

The single marked the first time that McCartney had released a duet with another major artist and anticipated his 1980s collaborations with Michael Jackson.

[3] The song uses the ebony (black) and ivory (white) keys on a piano as a metaphor for integration and racial harmony.

[8] According to authors Chip Madinger and Mark Easter, "Rainclouds" is "perhaps most notorious" as the track that McCartney worked on during 9 December 1980, straight after hearing that John Lennon had been fatally shot in New York.

[9] When leaving AIR Studios in central London that evening, he said in response to a TV reporter's question about the murder: "drag, isn't it?

"[7] The footage was included in news broadcasts around the world and McCartney's apparent casualness, though masking his profound shock, earned condemnation from the press.

[25] Writing in 2010, biographer Howard Sounes said that while many people consider the song to be "annoyingly simplistic", it contains "the ineluctable power of McCartney's best tunes" and was a "massive hit".

[26] The song and video were spoofed in a 1982 Saturday Night Live sketch, with Eddie Murphy portraying Wonder and Joe Piscopo, as Frank Sinatra, assuming McCartney's role.

In the sketch, Sinatra criticises the "ebony and ivory" metaphor for racial equality (which was deemed by many critics to be overly simplistic, to the point of being insulting) as being "too artsy for the public – capiche?"

After a brief exchange, the duo perform the song with more direct, and offensive, lyrics ("You are black, and I am white / Life's an Eskimo Pie, let's take a bite!").

Club suggests that McCartney may have denied a request from producers Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the song's inclusion in the episode, thus necessitating the parody.