Eddie Rabbitt Sings 'Kentucky Rain' — Song He Wrote For Elvis Presley

Jun 13, 2020 by apost team

Eddie Rabbitt toured for many years until his death in 1998, performing a combination of songs he wrote for himself and those he wrote for others such as Elvis. Over the course of his performing career, he has sung Kentucky Rain many times on stage. Most of these performances are lost to the ages, but at least one recording of a live show survives, making its way onto YouTube back in 2014.

While people around the world know and love Elvis Presley — not to mention that his mansion home Graceland remains a huge tourist attraction to this day — many are unfamiliar with the songwriter behind his famous hit Kentucky Rain. His name is Eddie Rabbitt and he was a singer in his own right, as SongFacts details. Keep reading to discover Eddie Rabbitt’s lost rendition of the song he penned for Elvis.

The song Kentucky Rain is about a man searching for his missing love in — you guessed it — Kentucky. The lyrics refer to how the singer discovered, “Seven lonely days / And a dozen towns ago,” that his lover was missing. Now it’s raining and he’s making his way through town after town looking for her.

He doesn’t know why she left or what she’s “running to or from,” but he wants more than anything to “bring her home.” He loves her too much to let her go like this, so he’s determined to keep searching until he finds her. He will do whatever it takes — including hitchhiking.

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Kentucky Rain was written by Eddie Rabbitt and Dick Heard. The original version sold over a million copies in the United States and was certified Gold, according to Country Hang Daily. Although it was a big hit for Elvis, the song didn’t make it onto an album until Worldwide 50 Gold Award Hits Vol. 1.

In 2000, the song was retroactively added to a re-release of the classic album From Elvis In Memphis, originally released in 1969.

Eddie Rabbitt began his career in music in the 1960s as a songwriter for other artists. His big breaks were Kentucky Rain, which was released in 1970, and Pure Love, which he wrote for Ronnie Milsap in 1974, as Country Hang Daily reports.

Following these hits, he was able to start releasing his own music in the late 1970s. He even won the ACM Award for Top New Male Vocalist in 1977! Some of his most famous songs include I Love a Rainy Night and Drivin’ My Life Away.

Rabbit toured for many years until his death in 1998. He performed a combination of songs he wrote for himself and those he wrote for others. Over the course of his performing career, he has sung Kentucky Rain many times on stage.

This video shows a performance in which Rabbitt played a medley of many of his top hits. He chose to start with Kentucky Rain, which, as he says in the introduction, he wrote for Elvis.

Wearing a snazzy purple blazer and a high-collared shirt, Eddie Rabbitt stands alone at the front of the stage, the rest of the band behind him. It’s hardly fair to compare a studio version to a live performance, but Eddie’s rendition holds up nonetheless.

You can tell from the loving way he croons into the mike that he understands the song on a very personal level, which makes sense. After all, he wrote it!

Elvis Presley might be the more well-known face behind the classic song Kentucky Rain, but one of the songwriters gives him a run for his money with his own rendition. In a remarkable video clip of an old live show, Eddie Rabbitt pours his heart into his performance of this ballad about a man on a quest to find his missing love.

What did you think of this performance which was nearly lost to history? Let us know in the comments and be sure to pass this along to your loved ones.