Eddie Rabbitt

A pivotal figure in country music in the 1970s and '80s, Eddie Rabbitt eased country into softer, smoother territory, incorporating elements of soul and soft rock on a series of crossover hits that created the template for the urban cowboy era. Rabbitt pioneered this synthesis as a songwriter, getting his first break when Elvis Presley had a hit with his "Kentucky Rain" in 1969, but it was "Pure Love," a buoyant bopper Ronnie Milsap took to number one in 1974, that established the template for Rabbitt's career: R&B-inflected country performed as if it was pop, underpinned by a...