# Chocolate Rain

> A home-recorded song crossed into TV and ads, passing 12 million YouTube views in 2007.

- Owner: Tay Zonday
- Kind: Music
- Sector: Entertainment
- Seed date: Apr 2007
- Peak date: Aug 2007
- Date basis: Dates use the stated precision; chart positions are date anchors.
- Spread Score: 52 (Notable, provisional), v1.2
- Mechanics: Platform jump, Response chain, Press loop

## Summary

Zonday's April 2007 upload gained a wider audience that summer through forums, YouTube placement and television. Covers and parodies followed, then a sponsored Dr Pepper adaptation and YouTube's Music award.

## Timeline

- Apr 2007 — Tay Zonday (YouTube) — Zonday uploaded Chocolate Rain in April; sources differ between April 22 and 23.
- 2007-07-11 — 4chan users (Open web) — Know Your Meme dated the early anonymous-board attention to July 11.
- 2007-07-18 — Tay Zonday (YouTube) — Zonday answered his new audience with a Rick Astley cover, dubbed The Tay Roll.

The full timeline, metrics and sources are on the case page, or via the Pro API (https://howitspread.com/developers).

Canonical URL: https://howitspread.com/cases/chocolate-rain

Cite as: How It Spread (2026). “Chocolate Rain.” Case HIS-01003. Spread Score v1.2: 52/100. Updated 2026-10-17. https://howitspread.com/id/HIS-01003