Eddie Rabbitt

Induction Year: 1998

Birth Name: Edward Thomas Rabbitt

Birth Date: 11-27-1941

Place of Birth: Brooklyn, New York

Death Date: 05-07-1998

Place of Death: Nashville, Tennessee

Eddie Rabbitt wrote hits for Elvis Presley and Ronnie Milsap, but the bulk of his notable songs were delivered via his own pop-leaning, radio-friendly records.

The rare Brooklyn-born country star, Rabbitt began playing country music as a New Jersey teenager. A voracious student of the genre in his teens, he began performing while in his twenties, moving to Nashville in 1968, the same year Roy Drusky's version of "Working My Way Up From the Bottom" became his first cut.

In his early years in Nashville, Rabbitt supplemented a meager songwriting income by taking jobs as a truck driver and soda jerk. But in 1970, Elvis Presley recorded Rabbitt's "Kentucky Rain" and took that song into the pop Top 20. In 1974, Rabbitt's "Pure Love" became Ronnie Milsap's breakthrough single and the first #1 country hit for both artist and writer. There would be no more truck-driving for Eddie Rabbitt, though he would later write about the rigors of the road in the #1 hit "Drivin' My Life Away."

Rabbitt began recording for the Elektra label in 1974, and he and frequent co-writer Even Stevens began crafting a commercially potent batch of songs. Their first #1 together was "Drinkin' My Baby (Off My Mind.)" From then through 1988, every Rabbitt single charted inside the Top 10 of Billboard's country chart, and Rabbitt co-wrote most of those singles with Stevens and his producer, David Malloy. In the late 1970s and 1980s, when pop-accented country music was in radio favor, Rabbitt was among country's dominant artists and songwriters, and he tended to keep his marketable material to himself, rather than seek cuts from other artists.

Rabbitt co-wrote a dozen #1 country songs, including "Step by Step," "Someone Could Lose a Heart Tonight" and the crossover smash "I Love a Rainy Night." Twelve of his songs earned BMI's Million-Air status, with "Drivin' My Life Away" and "I Love a Rainy Night" performed more than three million times and "Kentucky Rain," "Step by Step" and "Suspicions" notching more than two million performances. He practiced a workmanlike approach to songcraft even at the height of success, saying, "A writer has to keep one foot in the street and one pocket empty and be hungry for it."

Rabbitt's final #1 hit came in 1989, with "On Second Thought." He died in 1998 of lung cancer and was inducted into that Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame that year.

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Song Catalog

 

"B-B-B-Burnin' Up with Love"

(written with Billy Joe Walker Jr., Even Stevens)

Eddie Rabbitt1984 #3 country, #36 adult contemporary
 

"Drinkin' My Baby (Off My Mind)"

(written with Even Stevens)

Eddie Rabbitt1976 #1 country
 

"Drivin' My Life Away"

(written with David Malloy, Even Stevens)

Eddie Rabbitt1980 #1 country, #5 pop, #3 adult contemporary
 

"Gone Too Far"

(written with David Malloy, Even Stevens)

Eddie Rabbitt1980 #1 country, #82 pop, #35 adult contemporary
 

"Hearts on Fire"

(written with Dan Tyler, Even Stevens)

Eddie Rabbitt1978 #2 country
 

"I Can't Help Myself"

(written with Even Stevens)

Eddie Rabbitt1977 #2 country, #77 pop
 

"I Just Want to Love You"

(written with David Malloy, Even Stevens)

Eddie Rabbitt1978 #1 country, #47 adult contemporary

"I Love a Rainy Night"

(written with David Malloy, Even Stevens)

Eddie Rabbitt1980 #1 country, #1 pop, #1 adult contemporary

"Kentucky Rain"

(written with Dick Heard)

Elvis Presley1970 #16 pop, #3 adult contemporary, #31 country
 

"On Second Thought"

Eddie Rabbitt1989 #1 country
 

"Pour Me Another Tequila"

(written with David Malloy, Even Stevens)

Eddie Rabbitt1979 #5 country

"Pure Love"

Ronnie Milsap1974 #1 country
 

"Rocky Mountain Music"

Eddie Rabbitt1976 #5 country, #76 pop, #48 adult contemporary
 

"Someone Could Lose a Heart Tonight"

(written with David Malloy, Even Stevens)

Eddie Rabbitt1981 #1 country, #10 adult contemporary, #15 pop

"Step by Step"

(written with David Malloy, Even Stevens)

Eddie Rabbitt1981 #1 country, #3 adult contemporary, #5 pop

"Suspicions"

(written with David Malloy, Randy McCormick, Even Stevens)

BMI Country Song of the Year

Eddie Rabbitt1979 #1 country, #13 pop, #9 adult contemporary
Tim McGraw2007 #12 country, #87 pop
 

"The Best Year of My Life"

(written with Even Stevens)

Eddie Rabbitt1984 #1 country
 

"Two Dollars in the Jukebox"

Eddie Rabbitt1977 #3 country
 

"We Can't Go on Livin' Like This"

(written with Even Stevens)

Eddie Rabbitt1977 #6 country
 

"You Can't Run From Love"

(written with David Malloy, Even Stevens)

Eddie Rabbitt1983 #1 country, #55 pop, #2 adult contemporary

Other Media

Eddie Rabbitt

Induction Year: 1998