This week in 1983: President Ronald Reagan reported that the U.S. was complying with congressional restrictions on aid to Nicaragua; Chicago elected the city's first black mayor; 40 people were killed in the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut; and a singer from Brooklyn, New York, had his 23rd hit record.
Eddie Rabbitt's 1983 No. 1 "You Can't Run from Love" was the result of what the three co-writers (Eddie Rabbitt, Even Stevens and David Malloy ) called their "round-robin writing sessions." Many of Eddie Rabbitt's songs were co-written by the three, seated around the chrome-legged formica dinette table in their DebDave Music Publishing office kitchen.
Seems that none of the three remember just who had the idea for the song, but all three agreed that Rabbitt came up with the bridge for the tune.
The song was the second single released from Eddie's "Radio Romance" album and came on the country music charts April 2, 1983 and was in the top slot on June 18th.
It was his 23rd charted song, his 12th No. 1, and was on the charts for 17 weeks.
Eddie Rabbitt placed 43 songs on the country music charts from 1974 through 1991, including 17 No. 1s. Fourteen of his 43 country chart songs also placed on the pop charts.
Rabbitt was born Edward Thomas Rabbitt in Brooklyn, New York, in 1941, but was raised in East Orange, New Jersey. At age 12 his scoutmaster taught him to play guitar and according to Eddie, "from then on it was music, music, music for me!"
He moved to Nashville in 1968 and his first night in Music City he wrote "Working My Way up to the Bottom," which was recorded by Roy Drusky. During that time he worked as a truck driver, soda jerk and fruit picker and later was signed as a song writer with Hill And Range Publishing Co. for $37.50 a week.
His first big break in the music business happened when Elvis Presley recorded his song "Kentucky Rain." He also wrote Ronnie Milsap's first No. 1, "Pure Love" in 1974, which led to a recording contract with Elektra Records.
Eddie Rabbitt died at age 56 in1998.
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