"Pure Love" is the song which also marked the first country chart-topping single by its writer,

Eddie Rabbitt Edward Thomas Rabbitt (November 27, 1941 – May 7, 1998) was an American country music singer and songwriter. His career began as a songwriter in the late 1960s, springboarding to a recording career after composing hits such as "Kentucky Rain" ...

, a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

singer.

Background

Rabbitt had tasted previous success with 70's "

Kentucky Rain "Kentucky Rain" is a 1970 song written by Eddie Rabbitt and Dick Heard and recorded by Elvis Presley. It was recorded at American Sound Studio and features then session pianist Ronnie Milsap. Other musicians on the record include Bobby Wood on p ...

", sung by

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

. In the song, Eddie Rabbitt compares "pure love" to such things as milk, honey and the

Cap'n Crunch Cap'n Crunch is a maize, corn and oat breakfast cereal manufactured by Quaker Oats Company, a subsidiary of PepsiCo since 2001. After introducing the original cereal in 1963, marketed simply as ''Cap'n Crunch'', Quaker Oats has since introduced n ...

breakfast cereal, before pointing out that the love shared between the protagonist and his/her object of affection is "99 percent pure" (borrowing from the old Ivory soap advertising slogan). Eddie Rabbitt would later record the song as the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

to his 1975 single " Forgive and Forget".

Track listing

Background

"Pure Love" is a song recorded by American country music singer

Ronnie Milsap Ronnie Lee Milsap (born Ronald Lee Millsaps; January 16, 1943) is an American country music singer and pianist. He was one of country music's most popular and influential performers of the 1970s and 1980s. Nearly completely blind from birth, ...

. It was released in March 1974 as the first single and title track from the album '' Pure Love''. The song was Milsap's first No. 1 hit on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Hot Country Singles Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...

chart in the late spring of the year. Although Milsap had two previous top 15 hits—"I Hate You" and "That Girl Who Waits on Tables," both 1973—"Pure Love" is largely credited as being his career-breaking hit.

Chart performance

Sources

1974 singles Eddie Rabbitt songs RCA Records singles Ronnie Milsap songs Songs written by Eddie Rabbitt Song recordings produced by Tom Collins (record producer) 1974 songs {{1970s-country-song-stub