Drivin' My Life Away

The song is a look into the life of a truck driver and the long periods of time they spend away from home.

Although many of Rabbitt's successful songs were country-pop material, "Drivin' My Life Away" began its peak popularity as a crossover song. The song peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, and set the stage for his biggest career hit: "I Love a Rainy Night," which reached the top on the country, Hot 100 and adult contemporary charts in early 1981. Two more crossover hits - "Step by Step" and "You and I" (the latter a duet with Crystal Gayle) - followed in 1981 and 1982.

On Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart, it was his seventh out of 17 career chart toppers, spanning from 1976 through 1990.

In 1981, "Drivin' My Life Away" was certified gold for sales of half a million units by the Recording Industry Association of America.^[1] It has also sold a further 267,000 digital copies in the US since it became available for download.^[2]

• It was featured on the soundtrack of the 1980 movie Roadie starring Meat Loaf and Art Carney.
• The song was covered in Kidsongs' 1987 video: What I Want to Be.
• The song was covered in the 1987 Episode "Cup A' Joe" from The A-Team (season 3).
• It was also featured on the soundtrack of the movie Black Dog (1998 film) starring Patrick Swayze and Randy Travis and Meat Loaf.
• The song was featured in the 2016 film Everybody Wants Some!! at a scene which takes place at a Texas country bar.
• In Eddie Rabbitt's 1990 country hit "Running with the Wind" he mentions the 1980 crossover hit "Drivin' My Life Away" with the following lyric: I listen to the windshield wipers go/Just like the song I used to know/I'm drivin' my life away, hey/Drivin' my life away.
• The song is featured in the 2018 program The Americans, season 6, episode 4, during a line dancing scene.
• The song is featured at the beginning and at the end of the 2018 film Finding Steve McQueen.
• The song is featured as part of the soundtrack for the video game NASCAR 25.

"Drivin' My Life Away" was released in 1980 as the first single from his album Horizon. It reached number one on the Hot Country Singles in 1980, and peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100.