The World Famous Ultimate Twang: Classic Album Review-Eddie Rabbitt "Horizon"

Classic Album Review-Eddie Rabbitt “Horizon”

Today’s album takes me back to my early teenage years, 1980 and ‘81, to be exact, when Eddie Rabbitt was all over the radio, with two big hits, “Drivin’ My Life Away” and “I Love A Rainy Night”. And I mean all over the radio. I’d hear them on our local country outlets, such as WFMS and WIRE, along with Chicago’s WMAQ and Nashville’s WSM. Plus, the local top forty outlet, WIKS, and if I’m not mistaken, they even showed up on WIBC, the local full-service station. Those were the days when radio was still interesting and fun to listen to. Both singles came from what would be the most successful album of Eddie’s career, “Horizon”. A million seller, it would peak at number one on the country album charts, while climbing into the top twenty on the pop album list.

The album kicks off with what would actually be it’s second single, the mega-hit “I Love A Rainy Night”, which would top both the country and pop charts in early 1981. Still one of Eddie’s best works, in my opinion.

From there, we head into “747”, a song that has a rockabilly feel to it, though I wouldn’t call it pure rockabilly, due to the arrangement, which is more country-pop. Not a bad song, not particularly memorable, however, I think it would have come off better, if they had given it more of a rockabilly arrangement.

“Drivin’ My Life Away” is another classic. A country number one and pop top five in 1980, that was featured in the film “Roadie”. I consider this one to be one of the classic “trucker” songs in country music history. Again, like “I Love A Rainy Night”, one of Eddie’s best works (and he had a lot of great hits).

Like “747”, “Short Road To Love” also has that rockabilly feel to it, but again, I wish they would have given it a stronger rockabilly arrangement (to be fair, it is a bit closer than “747”), as it would have made a very good track, great, had they done so. But in 1980, a rockabilly sound wasn’t “in”, either in country or pop, so in both cases, they went with what was the hot sound of the time.

Ironically, the only track on side one that doesn’t rock is the song “Rockin’ With My Baby”. The only slow song on side one. I wouldn’t label this song a great one, but it is a nice track, enjoyable to listen to. Simply crafted, and again, a rockabilly feel, despite it’s slower tempo.

At the conclusion of side one, it may seem rather quick, and it is. Three of the five songs, are barely over three minutes in length, while the other two are only around two and a half minutes, each.

Turning over the disc, we now look at side two. Side two returns to the more country-pop sound that is heard on the majority of Eddie’s work, beginning with “I Need To Fall In Love Again”. Catchy refrain, with good lyrical content make this a very good track.

“So Deep In Your Love” doesn’t do it for me. The lyrics are good, but the melody has no flow, it’s not an easy track to listen to. I feel you have to invest too much, just to follow along.

On the other hand, “What Will I Write” is arguably the album’s hidden gem. Lyrically, it’s arguably the album’s strongest track, while the melody is haunting and memorable.

“Pretty Lady” is pretty average. A mid tempo track that I would consider simply filler. The album’s weakest track.

The album wraps with “That’s Just The Way It Is”. It reminds me a little bit, sound-wise, of “Suspicions” or “You Don’t Love Me Anymore”, two earlier Rabbitt hits. Again, a track that falls closer to average, nothing particularly memorable, it’s just there.

This album sat somewhere back in the dark vaults of Warner Bros./Elektra/Asylum, until re-entering the market, last year, as both a CD and MP3 download. I also found numerous used vinyl copies and even a few 8-tracks on the market.

This album could have easily been titled “Two Sides Of Eddie Rabbitt”. Side one shows a strong rockabilly influence, while side two is more of the country-pop ballad style that we most often associate with Eddie. Other than a couple of stumbles towards the end, this is a very good album worthy of a good rating, in which I will set at 4 out of 5. Do you think differently or the same?