The 1981 Listening Post - Eddie Rabbit - Step by Step

Eddie Rabbit - Step by Step 

#338

By Rob Haneisen

Eddie Rabbitt

Step by Step

Genre: Country crossover (but it’s still country!)

Allen’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Rob’s rating: 1 out of 5

My son has introduced me to a lot of music that I would never have chosen to experience. He’s a teen and he loves pop music. So, my rides in the car with him are dominated by Ed Sheeran, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Maroon 5, etc. It could be worse. He could like country music.

Let’s be clear about Eddie Rabbitt and his 1981 album “Step by Step” – this is country music. Sure, call it crossover country music if it makes you feel better. Why? Because it sold a ton of copies? This peaked at #1 on the Country charts and was a top 10 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart. It was nominated for a Grammy for best Male Country Music Performance.  And Mr. Rabbitt of course was riding the high of a couple successful albums before this one too, including a notable title track to the soundtrack of Clint Eastwood’s “Every Which Way but Loose” (a movie where an ape upstaged Clint, which isn’t hard). 

There are songs on this album that flirt with rockabilly. The start of “Skip-A-Beat” actually sounds like Chris Isaak but without the irony. But it devolves into guitar finger-pickin’ and steel guitar slide whining and Rabbitt’s voice that seems like it was born in some dusty VFW beer hall dressed up with a disco ball, a baby suckled on past best-buy date Budweiser and soothed with grocery store big batch honey. Sure it’s smooth, but still doesn’t taste very good and is ultimately forgettable.

And the title track is full of the schmaltzy wholesomeness you’d expect from the adult contemporary/country fare of the early 80s. It’s American values on parade and who knows how many pony parade princesses were swept up in its empty magic. But at least like most of these songs, it is kept mercifully short and sticks to a formula of a carousel of chorus. The whole album only clocks in at 33 minutes.

The one song that breaks the pattern is “Someone Could Lose a Heart Tonight” which is straight-up disco rock. Seriously, this would fit right in next to “I was made for Loving You” by Kiss. Different, but still awful. 

Somewhere in Nashville, there is likely an elevator that plays songs from this album. I pray the building is not very tall.

https://open.spotify.com/album/6NPl3jEs80qKHd4Y5yo83u?si=wEdfGnSqTpiFSek3CETPPg