Replies

In my survey of the Roots of Hot Country, I’ve covered the songwriters who were assembled by producer Chips Moman to provide songs for Elvis Presley’s revival: Wayne Carson, Mark James, Mac Davis and Eddie Rabbitt. Last week I looked at the contributions of Mac Davis. This week it’s Eddie.

Eddie Rabbitt grew up in North Jersey in a musical family. His father played fiddle and accordion, and Eddie learned to play guitar from his scoutmaster. At a time when a Jersey boy would naturally gravitate to the doo-wop sounds being heard on every street corner, Eddie gravitated instead to country music.

Dropping out of high school, Eddie worked at a series of menial jobs in New Jersey and then Nashville. His first recording contract took him nowhere, and instead he concentrated on writing songs. Of all the beer-soaked denizens of Wally’s Nightclub in Nashville, Eddie was the hungriest. It was a chance meeting with Chips Moman in 1969 that produced one of Elvis Presley’s greatest successes, an Eddie Rabbitt tune titled “Kentucky Rain”. Eddie was 28.

It was five years before Eddie penned another hit, and it went all the way to #1 on the country charts in 1974. This song got Eddie a contract with Elektra Records.

Ronnie Milsap: “Pure Love”