When they mention the greatest country acts in history, the names of Hank Williams Jr., Conway Twitty, Charley Pride, Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton, George Strait and band Alabama are normally mentioned.
And rightfully so. Those acts are among the pillars of the genre.
Rarely, though, is the name of Eddie Rabbitt brought up. And that's a shame. In his all-too-brief career, Rabbitt scored 39 Top 40 country hits between 1974-90 with 34 of those being Top 10 hits and 17 of those -- exactly half -- being No. 1s.
Not bad for a man who was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. Yes, Broooook-lyyyyn! Home of great pizza and Junior's Cheesecake Factory.
Yeah, not exactly the best marriage -- country and Brooklyn. But Rabbitt (born November 27, 1941), who would spend his youth living in nearby East Orange, N.J., made it work when he took a chance in 1964 to make it in Nashville, scoring his first break when country star Roy Drusky recorded Rabbitt's composition, "Working My Way Up To The Bottom," in 1968. After working as a soda jerk, truck driver and a fruit picker just to stay in Nashville and keep his music career alive, Rabbitt's foot was in the door at long last.
And not too long after that, he wrote "Kentucky Rain," a song that appealed to music's biggest star -- not just country, but overall.
Elvis Presley made it a Top 20 pop hit and Rabbitt, who co-wrote the song with a man named Dick Heard, was off and running at 28 years old. He continued to make a name for himself as a songwriter, writing "Pure Love" in 1974, which turned into a No. 1 country hit for another rising star and friend of Presley's, Ronnie Milsap.
With his name established in songwriting, Rabbitt set out to become a star singer. That came in 1974 when "You Got To Me" peaked at No. 34. Two years later, his fourth Top 40 country song, "Drinkin' My Baby (Off My Mind)," became his first No. 1 hit.
With his singing career established, next up was pop crossover status. Touring with Kenny Rogers, then Dolly Parton certainly got his name out there and in 1979, it was the theme song from a Clint Eastwood movie called "Every Which Way But Loose" that did the trick. Not only was that his fourth No. 1 country hit, but it became his first American Top 40 hit, peaking at No. 30. That was followed by his first Top 20 hit in the summer of '79, "Suspicions," which went to No. 13 pop and became another No. 1 country hit.
In 1980, Rabbitt finally cracked the Top 10 pop with "Drivin' My Life Away" from the movie Roadie. Then his follow-up did the amazing -- "I Love A Rainy Night" became his first and only No. 1 pop hit in February 1981, spending two weeks at No. 1 after hitting No. 1 country.
By now, that gave Rabbitt the chance to do what he wanted to do in the studio. He cranked out another country crossover hit in the fall of 1981 with "Step By Step," a No. 1 country and No. 5 pop hit. But on his next single, he dared to be different.
The song was "Someone Could Lose A Heart Tonight." Rabbitt and his studio band decided to go away from the traditional country sound and bring more mainstream guitar than steel guitar to the track. Opening with a closed, muffled riff, the song travels into a soft-pounding backbeat and ringing guitars before Rabbitt sings his first note.
This downright serious tune made its debut on AT40 on December 5, 1981 at No. 32, the highest debut of the week of any of the debuts. And while it may have fallen short of its Top 10 expectations, peaking at No. 15 in late January 1982, the song still succeeded in luring more country music fans -- it hit No. 1 on February 13, 1982, spending one week at the top.
Interestingly, though, Rabbitt would never have another Top 20 pop hit as a solo performer. A year later, though, he hit No. 1 country (again) and the Top 10 pop for the final time when his duet with country star Crystal Gayle, "You & I," peaked at No. 7.
His pop career may have dried up, but Rabbitt continued to have hits on the country chart, including his 1986 No. 1 duet with Juice Newton "Both to Each Other," which was the country version of the No. 2 pop hit by Gloria Loring and Carl Anderson titled "Friends And Lovers."
In 1989, Rabbitt had his final No. 1 country hit, "On Second Thought." His last Top 10 hit was "Runnin' With The Wind" in 1990 and soon after that, his last Top 40 country hit came out, "American Boy," a song that Bob Dole used as his introduction while on the road promoting his bid for president in 1996.
Rabbitt continued to tour through the 1990s, but in 1997, he was diagnosed with lung cancer even though he wasn't a smoker. Years and years of playing honky tonks and bars finally caught up to him. Still, Rabbitt continued on to record new music and tour, never telling his own agent of his diagnosis. When Rabbitt passed away from the disease on May 7, 1998, at the age of 56, even his agent had no idea. In 1998, Rabbitt was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
He may not get the notoriety as a Conway Twitty or a George Strait or a Hank Williams Jr., but Eddie Rabbitt was very much a country star in his own right.
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