Eddie Rabbitt

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A pivotal figure in country music in the 1970s and ’80s, Eddie Rabbitt eased country into softer, smoother territory, incorporating elements of soul and soft rock on a series of crossover hits that created the template for the urban cowboy era. Rabbitt pioneered this synthesis as a songwriter, getting his first break when Elvis Presley had a hit with his “Kentucky Rain” in 1969, but it was “Pure Love,” a buoyant bopper Ronnie Milsap took to number one in 1974, that established the template for Rabbitt’s career: R&B-inflected country performed as if it was pop, underpinned by affection for old-time rock & roll. “Drivin’ My Life Away,” “I Love a Rainy Night,” and “Someone Could Lose a Heart Tonight,” a clutch of number one country hits from the early ’80s that all pulsated to a light rockabilly beat, a signature of Rabbitt’s that sometimes got overshadowed by his facility for easy listening. “Suspicions,” his satiny country chart-topper from 1979, crossed over into the pop charts and the adult contemporary charts and he’d stay there through 1983 thanks to such hits as “Step by Step” and “You and I,” a duet with Crystal Gayle. Rabbitt continued to place in the country Top Ten into 1990. The hits slowed down in the ’90s but he kept working until his death from lung cancer in 1998.
Hailing from Brooklyn and New Jersey, Rabbitt moved to Nashville in 1968. Though it took a few years to get his recording career off the ground, he paid the rent by songwriting, authoring Elvis Presley’s “Kentucky Rain” and Ronnie Milsap’s “Pure Love.” Rabbitt continued to write professionally until 1975, when he signed with Elektra Records’ newly established country division. Initially, he made recordings that were decidedly country — mostly uptempo material, like “Two Dollars in the Jukebox” and “Drinkin’ My Baby (Off My Mind)” — with dense, inimitable harmonies, most of them overdubbed by Rabbitt himself. However, with the assistance of his then-associates David Malloy and Even Stevens, Rabbitt’s records became “progressively progressive.” In 1976, he started a string of Top Ten hits that ran uninterrupted until 1989. During that time, he had 16 number one singles, among them “Drinkin’ My Baby (Off My Mind)” (1976), “You Don’t Love Me Anymore” (1978), “Every Which Way But Loose” (1979), “Drivin’ My Life Away” (1980), “I Love a Rainy Night” (1980), “Step by Step” (1980), and “You and I,” a 1982 duet with Crystal Gayle. In the late ’80s, he returned to more traditional sounds, as his country shuffle “On Second Thought” demonstrates. In addition to declining sales, the terminal kidney ailment of his son also factored in his decision to only sporadically record and perform during the ’90s. In 1997, Rabbitt was diagnosed with lung cancer; the disease claimed his life on May 7, 1998. The LP From the Heart was issued posthumously. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Tom Roland