Bill DeYoung.com

Eddie Rabbitt — Essentials

By: Bill Deyoung

©2003 Warner Strategic Marketing

January 2002

Despite what the history books might say, the late 1970s and early '80s weren't such a bad time for country music. Sure, after Urban Cowboy hit, it seemed as if every other country record was as smooth as Top 40 buttermilk, strings and all, and the lines between country and pop music were getting pretty brazenly crossed over.

But who said country music had to be beer–drinking, knee–slapping hillbilly music? Or rough, gritty and long–haired outlaw music? Who said Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers didn't make real and heartfelt country records, as dictated by the times?

Eddie Rabbitt didn't fit anybody's description of a "genuine" country performer. He was born way, way east of the Appalachians, in Brooklyn, N.Y. Country music wasn't his birthright, but he honed his God–given talent into something substantial, and worked hard for what he wanted most.

That was to be a top–shelf country writer and performer. His sound was unique — maybe a bit too "pop" for those purists who tsk–tsked such things — but there was no doubt that the country–loving American public considered him a favorite son. Eddie Rabbitt hit the top spot on the Billboard country singles chart a staggering 17 times.

All 12 of the songs on this collection reached #1. Rabbitt's all–time biggest country single, "Every Which Way But Loose," from the Clint Eastwood film of the same name, stayed on top for three consecutive weeks at the end of 1978.

Two years later, his "I Love a Rainy Night" topped the country, pop and adult contemporary charts simultaneously.

Although he certainly understood what it took to make a flat–out commercial country record, Eddie Rabbitt always took it one, two or three steps further. He developed a sound that no one else could duplicate, and when "I Love a Rainy Night" or "Drivin' My Life Away" or "Someone Could Lose a Heart Tonight" came on the radio, within seconds you knew it was Eddie Rabbitt and no one else.

Edward Thomas Rabbitt was born in Brooklyn Nov. 27, 1941 and raised not too far away in East Orange, N.J. His parents were Irish immigrants; his dad played fiddle and accordion.

Eddie's musical mentor was none other than his scoutmaster, who went by the name of Texas Bob Randall. From Texas Bob, he learned about Bob Wills, Johnny Cash and Lefty Frizzell — and by the time he was a teen–ager, Eddie was playing guitar and singing on his own. He dropped out of high school to pursue his musical dreams (although as an adult he attended night classes and received his diploma).

In 1964, Rabbitt scored a minor hit for 20^th Century Records, but the deal petered out and he began to set his sights on a make–or–break run to Nashville. He finally did it in '68, arriving on a Greyhound bus with a $1,000 nest egg in his jacket pocket, and absolutely no music business connections.

Incredibly, Hill & Range Songs signed the novice songwriter, for $37.50 a week, and soon Roy Drusky gave Eddie Rabbitt his first cut, "Working My Way Up to the Bottom." His songs were covered by Willie Nelson, Tom Jones, O.C. Smith, Sammi Smith and Conway Twitty, among others.

In 1970, Elvis Presley had a smash with Rabbitt's "Kentucky Rain"; Ronnie Milsap went to #1 in '74 with Rabbitt's "Pure Love."

Rabbitt signed as a recording artist with Elektra following the success of "Pure Love," and his fourth single, "Drinkin' My Baby (Off My Mind)" topped the chart in the early spring of 1976.

In the ensuing years, as the lines between musical styles blurred, Rabbitt displayed a canny ear for arrangement and adaptation: His 1979 "Suspicions" was a sinewy dance ballad, followed by "Gone Too Far," a light romp through vaguely Caribbean–flavored pop. Both songs were #1 country hits.

Then, within the span of a couple of months, came "Drivin' My Life Away" and "I Love a Rainy Night," on which Rabbitt first exercised the formula that would always come to define him: His thin tenor voice, with just a whisper of Elvis–style echo, layered over a relentless charge of acoustic guitar and swing rhythm. He overdubbed all the background vocals himself, what he liked to call the "Eddie Rabbitt Chorale."

Talk about blurring the lines: "Drivin' My Life Away" was a highlight of the ill–received film Roadie, which starred Meat Loaf and Debbie Harry. And the pop domination of "I Love a Rainy Night" was sandwiched between Number Ones by Dolly Parton ("9 to 5") and REO Speedwagon ("Keep on Loving You").

Rabbitt's hit streak on Elektra continued through the end of 1982. "You and I," a duet with Crystal Gayle, was his final #1 for the label. He had two chart–toppers for Warner Bros. ("You Can't Run From Love" and "The Best Year of My Life") before moving on to several other labels (fittingly, he hit the top again in 1988 with a rockin' remake of Dion's bopping "The Wanderer," which might as well have been the blueprint for "I Love a Rainy Night").

His label–hopping in the '80s was due, in part, to his commitment to his family. Eddie's 2–year–old son Timothy Rabbitt died in 1985 of a rare liver ailment, which resulted in the entertainer becoming a national crusader for organ transplants and cancer research. He also cut back on his schedule, working for just six months out of every year so he could be with his wife and two surviving children.

In the early 1990s, Rabbitt caused a stir by railing against the negative influence of MTV, which he said "distorted our youth mentally so that science and math are now so far away from a child's mind that anyone thinking about it is a nerd." He referred to Madonna as "The Pied Piper From Hell."

In 1997, Eddie Rabbitt was diagnosed with lung cancer. After surgery and extensive rounds of chemotherapy, he died on May 7, 1998 at Nashville's Baptist Hospital.

Like so many artists, he left a legacy of unique music that reminds us, listen after listen, that regardless of the genre it was distinctly his.