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Eddie Rabbitt was one of the unsung pop-hybrid singer-songwriters who moved country music closer to a fusion with the pop and rock genres. The most successful country performer during the Urban Cowboy years, with a string of chart-topping singles, gold and platinum albums and sold-out tours, he shared a rare gift with Neil Diamond: the ability to make middle-of-the-road songs sound exciting. Like Diamond, he first gained prominence as a writer, Elvis’ Kentucky Rain and Ronnie Milsap’s Pure Love, being just two successful examples. Rabbitt’s songs profess love and romance as the common denominator and in the hits Suspicions, On Second Thought and I Love A Rainy Night he displayed a strong melodic sense with plenty of creative ideas to go with it. The classic honky-tonker, Two Dollars In The Jukebox, is one of those commercial jingles that tingles in your mind, a powerful mix of country music roots with a progressive approach. In comparison to Waylon, Willie, Hank Jnr., and his other contemporaries, Eddie’s songs were more gentle. He preferred a smooth, image-projecting style to the

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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

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Born Edward Thomas on November 27, 1941, in Brooklyn, New York; died May 7, 1998; son of an oil refinery refrigeration engineer; married Janine, November 27, 1976; children: Dimelza, Timmy (died, 1985), Tommy. Addresses: Record Company--Intersound Records, Inc., P.O. Box 1724, Roswell, GA 30077. Fan Club--P.O. Box 35286, Cleveland, OH 44135.

Singer/songwriter Eddie Rabbitt, a New Jersey boy with a soft heart, smooth voice, and the talent to create uplifting melodies, pioneered the expansion of country music onto the pop charts. Both country and pop music fans loved Rabbitt's no nonsense style of songwriting and made Rabbitt a superstar with 26 number one country hits and eight Top 40 pop hits. This crossover success was unheard of in 1980, but with such hits as "I Love A Rainy Night," "Drivin' My Life Away,"I Just Want to Love You," and "Step by Step," Rabbit became a crossover country/pop music pioneer.

Eddie Rabbitt was born Edward Thomas on November 27, 1941 in Brooklyn, New York. His parents, Irish immigrants, soon moved to Orange County, New Jersey where Rabbitt's father