Responding to a reader request to feature some Eddie Rabbitt, today’s classic song of the day is his 1980 crossover hit, “I Love a Rainy Night.” Released in November of 1980, it peaked early the following year at #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard’s Hot Country Songs charts. It was also #1 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart, a rare triple play.
Eddie Rabbitt made his bones as a songwriter for other artists, most prominently with “Kentucky Rain,” a huge hit for Elvis Presley in 1970. Rabbitt signed as a performer with Elektra Records in 1975 and promptly charted three top forty hits on the country charts (“You Get to Me,” “Forgive and Forget,” and “I Should Have Married You”). He had his first number-one country hit in 1977 (“Drinkin’ My Baby (Off My Mind)”) and was named Top New Male Vocalist of the Year by the Academy of Country Music.
After a string of country hits, Rabbitt crossed over to a mainstream pop audience with 1979’s “Every Which Way But Loose.” That crossover success continued with the singles “Suspicions,” “Drivin’ My Life Away,” and his biggest hit, “I Love a Rainy Night.” He even had his own television special on the NBC network that aired on July 10, 1980.
“I Love a Rainy Night” was a dozen years in the making. Rabbitt says he was rummaging through some old tapes one night in 1980 and found a fragment of a song he had recorded back in the late 1960s. He said it brought back the memory sitting alone in a small apartment late at night, watching the rain coming down, singing into his tape recorder, “I love a rainy night, I love a rainy night.” That discovery prompted him to complete that old song, with the help of his songwriting partners David Malloy and Even Stevens.
Eddie Rabbitt continued recording and performing throughout most of the ’80s and remained popular with country music fans. His career trailed off in the ’90s and he was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1997. He released his final studio album, Beatin’ the Odds, in 1998 and passed away in May of that year. He was just 56 years old.
So here’s your daily bonus video of the day, Eddie Rabbitt singing “I Love a Rainy Night” on the syndicated Solid Gold show in 1981. RIP, Mr. Rabbitt.
