Forgotten '80s pop stars: EDDIE RABBITT

Brooklyn, NY, was an unlikely birthplace for a country singer, but that's where Edward Thomas Rabbitt was born on November 27, 1944. He grew up in East Orange, NJ, and moved to Nashville in 1968.

Rabbit made his earliest recordings for the 20th Century Fox label in 1964. His first true success, however, came as a songwriter, when Elvis Presley recorded Rabbitt's "Kentucky Rain" in 1970.

Rabbitt first made the Billboard Hot 100 with "Rocky Mountain Music," which reached #76 in the late summer of 1976. Three years later, he cracked the top forty for the first time, when he sang the title song from the Clint Eastwood film, "Every Which Way But Loose." Next came "Suspicions," a summertime hit for Rabbitt that climbed to #13.

From mid-1980 through early 1983, Eddie Rabbitt was rarely absent from the pop charts, racking up hits like "Drivin' My Life Away" (#5), "I Love A Rainy Night" (#1), "Step By Step" (#5), "Someone Could Lose A Heart Tonight" (#15), and his duet with Crystal Gayle, "You And I." The latter spent an impressive 29 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100!

Though Rabbitt's pop success ended after 1982, he remained highly popular in the country field and continued to record and tour until he was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1997. The disease took Eddie Rabbitt's life on May 7, 1998. His album "From The Heart" was released posthumously.

Nonsense!

<sings> Ooooooooooohh I'm drivin' my life away...

"I Don't Know Where to Start", a heartbreaking little gem that he released as his popularity was beginning to wane.

I either didn't know he had died or I had forgotten it...

My mom is an amateur pianist and amateur choral singer. Therefore, she was the one who sang at various family weddings. About 20 years ago when one of my uncles was getting married, he wanted my mom to sing "You and I" at the wedding. I got to hear her practice that song over and over and over. What was even worse was she sang Lionel Ritchie's "Truly" at another one. Ahhhhh! :crazy:

I hear that fucking "You And I" at least three times a week. God, what a lame-ass record!

Imagine that with the stupid little melody (just to drive you even more nuts). :crazy: That damn station is everywhere you go. It's inescapable.

Kind of tells you all you need to know about them.

I always liked "Ten Dollars In The Jukebox."

Yeah, he was country lite, but what the hell. A damn sight better than Toby Keith.

And he was just a super-nice, good-humored guy. Nobody better be blowin' any shit on my man Eddie.

I wept when I found out he died. He crafted some truly good tunes.

It was in 1996, when I worked at the Riverside Resort & Casino in Laughlin, Nevada. Eddie Rabbit played there for a week, and I just happened to be walking by the auditorium entrance as he stood outside after a show, signing autographs and shaking hands with his fans.

I chatted with Rabbitt for a minute or so, during which time I mentioned how I used to hear his records on the radio in Connecticut all the time back in the early '80s. He replied that he had played some dates in the Nutmeg State back then.

I also told him that if I had to pick a personal favorite, it would be "Someone Could Lose A Heart Tonight" because I considered it a unique-sounding record during a time when unique-sounding records were all but absent from the pop charts. And though I didn't say this to Rabbitt, it's also one of only a couple of his hits that I still find listenable! :)

"Someone Could Lose a Heart Tonight" is a great example. I've always been partial to "Drivin' My Life Away".

Love him or hate him (and I happen to love him), he wrote catchy tunes that no one else could emulate. And that alone is something that we've rarely encountered since, and certainly not in the last five years.

"Suspicion" and "Rainy Night".

Too bad he was a hard-core Repug.