Eddie Rabbitt

Eddie Rabbitt emerged as a central influence on country music throughout the 1970s and 1980s, steering the style toward gentler and more polished sounds by folding soul and soft rock into an array of crossover successes that shaped the urban cowboy period. He first developed this approach while working as a songwriter, securing an early opportunity when Elvis Presley scored a hit with his “Kentucky Rain” in 1969, though “Pure Love,” the lively number Ronnie Milsap carried to the top spot in 1974, set the pattern for Rabbitt’s output: R&B-infused country rendered with pop directness and anchored by a taste for vintage rock and roll. “Drivin’ My Life Away,” “I Love a Rainy Night,” and “Someone Could Lose a Heart Tonight,” a run of country chart-toppers from the early 1980s, all moved to a crisp rockabilly pulse, a hallmark sometimes eclipsed by his gift for easy-listening material. “Suspicions,” his silky 1979 country number one, also registered on the pop and adult contemporary charts, where he remained through 1983 with further successes such as “Step by Step” and “You and I,” the latter a duet with Crystal Gayle. Rabbitt kept landing in the country Top Ten until 1990. Activity slowed during the 1990s, yet he continued performing until his death from lung cancer in 1998.

Born in Brooklyn, New York on November 27, 1941 and raised in East Orange, New Jersey, Eddie Rabbitt developed a deep attachment to music in childhood, encouraged by scoutmaster and neighbor Tony Schwickrath, who recorded as Texas Bob Randall. Schwickrath instructed him on guitar and acquainted him with country sounds. Following his parents’ divorce, Rabbitt left high school and took assorted jobs while pursuing a musical path. In 1964, 20th Century Fox Records issued “Six Nights and Seven Days”/“Next to the Note,” which drew little notice. His first songwriting credit came when Roy Drusky included Rabbitt’s “Working My Way Up from the Bottom” on the 1966 LP In a New Dimension, though he still faced obstacles as a performer. “The Bed,” a 1968 Date single, made scant impact, but Lee Hazlewood noticed the track and cut his own version in 1969.

“The Bed” marked the start of Rabbitt’s shift toward full-time songwriting. He relocated to Nashville in 1968 and signed with the Hill & Range publishing company. Late in 1969, Elvis Presley recorded “Kentucky Rain,” co-written by Rabbitt and Dick Heard. “Kentucky Rain” peaked at 16 on the Hot 100. Presley added two further Rabbitt songs in 1970: “Inherit the Wind” on Back in Memphis and “Patch It Up” on That’s the Way It Is. Another breakthrough arrived in spring 1974 when Ronnie Milsap took the buoyant “Pure Love” to number one on the Country chart.

Elektra signed Rabbitt after Milsap’s success and released the single “You Get to Me” in August 1974. A self-titled debut appeared in 1975; its singles “Forgive and Forget” and “I Should Have Married You” stopped just short of the Country Top Ten. “Drinkin’ My Baby (Off My Mind),” the 1976 single that became his first country number one, combined a honky-tonk groove with pop appeal, a mix well suited to contemporary country radio. It led the 1976 album Rocky Mountain Music, which also yielded the Top Ten Country hits “Rocky Mountain Music” and “Two Dollars in the Jukebox.” The 1977 release Rabbitt sustained the run with Top Ten singles “I Can’t Help Myself” and “We Can’t Go On Living Like This,” earning him the Academy of Country Music’s Top New Male Vocalist award in 1978.

Variations pushed Rabbitt deeper into pop territory with the smooth “You Don’t Love Me Anymore,” a country number one that also reached 18 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart. “I Just Want to Love You” likewise topped the Country chart, yet its light disco feel produced another minor adult contemporary entry and paved the way for “Every Which Way But Loose,” the theme from the Clint Eastwood comedy, to become his first Top 40 pop hit in 1979. He improved on that result with “Suspicions,” a sultry slow-burner that led the Country chart, reached the Adult Contemporary Top Ten, and nearly entered the pop Top Ten. “Suspicions” was one of three major country hits from the 1979 album Loveline, which also contained “Pour Me Another Tequila” and “Gone Too Far.”

Horizon became Rabbitt’s strongest-selling album in 1980, propelled by two major crossover singles that pulsed with streamlined rockabilly energy. “Drivin’ My Life Away” hit number one on the Country chart and number five on the pop chart, while “I Love a Rainy Night” topped the Country, Pop, and Adult Contemporary charts. “Step by Step” and “Someone Could Lose a Heart Tonight,” both drawn from the 1981 album Step by Step, extended the streak, as did the 1982 set Radio Romance and its country number one “You and I,” the Crystal Gayle duet that climbed to number seven on the pop chart and number two on adult contemporary.

Pop success faded after “You and I,” a decline that coincided with Rabbitt’s move to Warner Bros. for the 1984 album The Best Year of My Life; by 1986 he had joined RCA Records. He continued to reach the Billboard Country Top Ten throughout the 1980s, securing number ones with “The Best Year of My Life,” the Juice Newton duet “Both to Each Other (Friends and Lovers),” “I Wanna Dance with You,” “The Wanderer,” and “On Second Thought.” “American Boy,” a 1989 single from Jersey Boy—his sole Capitol album—became his final Country Top 40 hit in 1990 and later served as the theme for Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign. Rabbitt’s growing conservatism surfaced on Ten Rounds, the 1991 Liberty album that included the track “C-Rap (Country Rap).”

After several quieter years, Rabbitt issued Beatin’ the Odds on Intersound in September 1997, its title alluding to his recent lung-cancer diagnosis. The children’s album Songs from Rabbittland followed in April 1998. Weeks afterward he died in Nashville on May 7, 1998 at the age of 56.