10/27/2010 - Escape (the Pina Colada Song) - Rupert Holmes - 1980

today's

Ocho-rific
Song o the Day...

::from SongMeanings.net::

I was tired of my lady,
We've been together too long
Like a worn-out recording,
Of a favorite song
So while she lay there sleeping,
I read the paper in bed
And in the personals column,
There was this letter I read:

"If you like Pina Coladas,
And getting caught in the rain
If you're not into yoga,
If you have half-a-brain
If you like making love at midnight,
In the dunes of the cape
I'm the lady you've looked for,
Write to me, and escape"

I didn't think about my lady,
I know that sounds kind of mean
But me and my old lady,
Have fallen into the same old dull routine
So I wrote to the paper,
Took out a personal ad
And though I'm nobody's poet,
I thought it wasn't half-bad

"Yes, I like Pina Coladas,
And getting caught in the rain
I'm not much into health food,
I am into champagne
I've got to meet you by tomorrow noon,
And cut through all this red tape
At a bar called O'Malley's,
Where we'll plan our escape"

So I waited with high hopes,
Then she walked in the place
I knew her smile in an instant,
I knew the curve of her face
It was my own lovely lady,
And she said, "Oh, it's you"
And we laughed for a moment,
And I said, "I never knew"

"That you liked Pina Coladas,
And getting caught in the rain
And the feel of the ocean,
And the taste of champagne
If you like making love at midnight,
In the dunes of the cape
You're the love that I've looked for,
Come with me, and escape"

"If you like Pina Coladas,
And getting caught in the rain
If you're not into yoga,
If you have half-a-brain
If you like making love at midnight,
In the dunes of the cape
I'm the lady you've looked for,
Write to me, and escape"

::WIKI "FACTS"::

*The song was also number one at the end of the 1970s and at the beginning of the 1980s.

*After its release as a single, the song became immediately popular, though initial sales were slow

due to the song's actual title, "Escape" going unnoticed in the place of the oft-repeated cocktail. Holmes reluctantly agreed to rename the song "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)". The song shot up through the charts, becoming the last number-one Billboard Hot 100 hit of the 1970s. Although some sources list this song as the first number-one hit of the 1980s, this is not true; the first chart of that decade, dated on January 5, 1980, was topped by "Please Don't Go" by KC and the Sunshine Band. "Escape", which was #2 that week, returned to #1 for an additional week on the January 12 chart, thus having the distinction of being the only single to rise to the #1 position in different decades.


*The chorus originally started with "if you like Humphrey Bogart", which Holmes changed at the last minute, replacing the actor with the name of the first exotic cocktail he could think of. When Rupert recorded the vocal, he did it just once as a scratch track for his lead guitarist, Dean Bailin. He also ad-libbed a harmony track a third above himself on the chorus, then left the song and came back the next day to record the proper vocal. When he came back to do the perfect vocal, he could not get the energy, excitement and enthusiasm he had singing it that one time straight through.

Rupert: "I said, 'These other vocals are more correct, but they're not as much fun. I was having fun when I sang that through. I was kind of making up the phrasing as I sang it and it had more spontaneity, more energy.' Jim Boyer, who was doing the album with me, agreed, and that became the vocal. When you hear The Pina Colada song, the story was written the night before, the line 'If you like Pina Coladas' was invented about 5 minutes before I started actually singing, and the vocal you hear is the first time I ever sang the song, and that became the vocal you hear on the record."

*Ironically, he does not care for the drink;
he once opined on the Uncle Floyd Show that they tasted like Kaopectate.


::Extra Goodies::

*Rupert Holmes play ACCOMPLICE to be presented at the Gaslight Theater

*More than you ever needed to know about Escape - the Pina Colada Song at SongFacts

*An Interview with Rupert Holmes at ClassicBands.com

*the Semi-Official Website and Resource Center of Rupert Holmes

Until next time...

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