February 5, 2021 —– Chart #77
Hello Musical Friends,
Welcome to Friday. My better half has been asking me to come up with more recent songs since I seem to be stuck in the 60’s and 70’s for my chart of the day selections. I keep trying to tell her that with some notable exceptions, the 80’s simply don’t measure up to all the great music of the 60’s and 70’s. I tend to think of the 80’s as a lost decade while musicians and recording studios were trying to figure out what to do with all the new electronic sounds, audio gimmicks and gadgets that were coming to market at the time. I mean “New Kids On The Block”, “Falco”, and “Wham!”. Really? Give me the Everly Brothers, The Beatles or any star from Motown.
So I found a song that went to number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1980 that made the cut. “Drivin’ My Life Away” is a song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Eddie Rabbitt. It was released in 1980 as the first single from his album Horizon. It reached number one on the Hot Country Singles in 1980, and peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was written by Rabbitt, Even Stevens and David Malloy. The song is a look into the life of a truck driver and the long periods of time they spend away from home. It was featured on the soundtrack of the 1980 movie Roadie starring Meat Loaf and Art Carney.
Edward Thomas Rabbitt (November 27, 1941 – May 7, 1998) was an American country music singer and songwriter. His career began as a songwriter in the late 1960s, springboarding to a recording career after composing hits such as “Kentucky Rain” for Elvis Presley in 1970 and “Pure Love” for Ronnie Milsap in 1974. Later in the 1970s, Rabbitt helped to develop the crossover-influenced sound of country music prevalent in the 1980s with such hits as “Suspicions“, “I Love a Rainy Night” (a number-one hit single on the Billboard Hot 100), and “Every Which Way but Loose” (the theme from the film of the same title). His duets “Both to Each Other (Friends and Lovers)” with Juice Newton and “You and I” with Crystal Gayle later appeared on the soap operas Days of Our Lives and All My Children.
Rabbitt was born to Irish immigrants Mae (née Joyce) and Thomas Michael Rabbitt in Brooklyn, New York, in 1941, and was raised in the nearby community of East Orange, New Jersey. His father was an oil-refinery refrigeration worker, and a skilled fiddle and accordion player, who often entertained in local New York City dance halls. By age 12, Rabbitt was a proficient guitar player, having been taught by his scoutmaster, Bob Scwickrath. During his childhood Rabbitt became a self-proclaimed “walking encyclopedia of country music”. After his parents divorced, he dropped out of school at age 16. His mother, Mae, explained that Eddie “was never one for school [because] his head was too full of music.” He later obtained a high-school diploma at night school.
Rabbitt worked as a mental hospital attendant in the late 1950s, but like his father, he fulfilled his love of music by performing at the Six Steps Down club in his hometown. He later won a talent contest and was given an hour of Saturday night radio show time to broadcast a live performance from a bar in Paterson, New Jersey. In 1964, he signed his first record deal with 20th Century Records and released the singles “Next to the Note” and “Six Nights and Seven Days“. Four years later, with $1,000 to his name, Rabbitt moved to Nashville, where he began his career as a songwriter. During his first night in the town, Rabbitt wrote “Working My Way Up to the Bottom“, which Roy Drusky recorded in 1968. To support himself, Rabbitt worked as a truck driver, soda jerk and fruit picker in Nashville. He was ultimately hired as a staff writer for the Hill & Range Publishing Company for $37.50 per week. As a young songwriter, Rabbitt socialized with other aspiring writers at Wally’s Clubhouse, a Nashville bar; he said he and the other patrons had “no place else to go.”
Okay, so maybe I cheated a little. Eddie Rabbit’s career really began in the 60’s and by 1980 he was in full swing. Regardless, Driving My Life Away was released in 1980 so it qualifies for an 80’s contribution to Chart of the Day. With all due respect to Cindi Lauper, Cinderella, and Salt N Pepa, Eddie Rabbit was a real Nashville songwriter and performer who endured for several decades. We lost Eddie to lung cancer in 1998 at the young age of 56. Otherwise I think he would still be going.
Eddie Rabbit live in The Midnight Special in 1980 (remember Ovation acoustic guitars?: https://youtu.be/Pu82VMf8enI
Keep rockin’ my friends,
Stan