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THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

Posted by: In: Other 09 Jun 2022 Comments: 0

THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.


276-Rupert Holmes-Escape (The Pina Colado Song)


1979-Number 23 single.


Best Bit-At 2.32. They have both just found out that their partner has been cheating on them, so what do they do? They laugh for a moment and say,’ I never knew that you liked Pina Colada.’


Rupert Holmes was born David Goldstein on February 24th, 1947, in Northwich, Cheshire, England, at the age of six he emigrated with his family to Nanuet, New York, United States. Holmes has had a varied career as a successful singer/songwriter, musician, playwright, and author. He has released nine studio Albums between 1974-2012, and 18 singles between 1974-1983, three of which have reached the Billboard top 40 singles chart, with this song making Number 1. In the UK two of his songs have charted, with this song reaching Number 23, and the follow up ‘Him’ making Number 31 in 1980. His songs have been recorded by many of the worlds top artists including Barbra Streisand, and Dolly Parton, and as a music producer he has worked with artists including Sparks, producing their 1976 Album ‘Big Beat,’ Holmes is also a playwright, he made his professional debut as a playwright in 1985 with the musical ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood,’ in total he has worked on 18 musicals. Holmes has also written for film and television, most famously the American comedy drama series ‘Remember WENN,’ writing all 56 episodes, he has also written three books. Holmes has said of his varied career, ‘I have a feeling that if I saved an entire orphanage from a fire and carried the last child out on my shoulders, as I stood there charred and smoking, they’d say,’Aren’t you the guy who wrote the pina colada song?’


‘Escape (The Pina Colada Song) was the lead single from Rupert Holmes fifth studio Album ‘Partners in Crime’ from 1979, the song was written by Holmes, and co-produced by Holmes and Jim Boyer. Rupert Holmes got the initial idea for the song after seeing the personal columns in ‘The Village Voice’. He got to thinking what it would be like to arrange a meeting with a complete stranger, and then he let his imagination run wild, what if the stranger turned out to be his partner.


It had been a last minute decision to introduce pina colada into the song. The original lyrics written by Holmes were ‘If you like Humphrey Bogart and getting caught in the rain’, but Holmes felt that someone yearning escapism would want something more exotic sounding, and also more modern. Holmes thoughts turned to escaping to a vacation on a beach where you may order a pina colada, he has acknowledged that the last minute decision to change the lyrics changed his life.


‘Escape (The Pina Colada Song’) is the tale of a man who reads the personal advertisements in the newspaper and spots an ad that catches his attention, a woman seeking a man who among other things enjoys pina colada’s. He replies to her ad, and they arrange to meet, where on meeting they are both shocked to realise that they are each others partners. The morale of the story is give your relationship every chance to blossom, before looking elsewhere. The song was the last Number 1 on the American Billboard chart for the 1970’s, and after being knocked off the top spot the following week, regained the Number 1 spot again for the second week of 1980. At the time of writing the song is the 357th best selling song on Billboard since it’s inception in 1958.
‘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.”