He’s alright… and he’s 75 today. Happy birthday to “Mr. Soundtrack”, Kenny Loggins.
Loggins actually hales from the same hometown as Kurt Cobain – Everett, Washington. However, the musically-adept Loggins soon found his way down the coast to California, where he joined a band called Second Helping which had minor success on the West Coast in 1968-69 (it should be noted this is not the same Second Helping that is now around; the current user of the name is a Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute band) and then to work as an in-house writer for ABC Records. There he met and befriended Jim Messina, a respected enough guitarist and writer who’d been in Poco and Buffalo Springfield. When Messina signed on with Columbia Records, he got Loggins in as well. Columbia agreed to put out Loggins’ first album in 1971, but asked that Messina produce it. Which he did, helping write the songs and playing lead guitar as well. In fact, by the time the LP was ready, they decided to label it Kenny Loggins With Jim Messina Sittin’ In. Nobody liked that moniker too much so on the five subsequent studio albums the pair did through 1976, they were simply “Loggins and Messina.” they had a very strong fanbase and scored 3 top 20 hits of their own, most memorably “Your Mama Don’t Dance” ,as well as two more which were both made into hits by Anne Murray of all people – “Danny’s Song” and “A Love Song.” By 1976 though, the pair had differing goals and musical ideas and split the partnership amicably although they did reunite for a major tour in 2005.
Loggins then set out on an even more successful solo career, with his first truly “solo” album coming out in 1977 and going platinum in the U.S. Since then, he’s added 13 more, had five go platinum and see them produced hit singles like “ This Is It” and the great duet with Stevie Nicks, “Whenever I Call You Friend.” However, Loggins is mainly known for a quick trio of songs from the movies in the ’80s: “I’m Alright” from Caddyshack, the title track for Footloose and “Danger Zone” from Top Gun. The latter two are the biggest ones of his career, most domestically and overseas, where he was quite a low-profile performer in the ’70s. “Footloose”, for instance was a #1 hit in Australia where #26 was the best he’d done before and both it and “Danger Zone” were top 10s in Switzerland. Nothing assures widespread airplay as much as being in a big budget Hollywood movie. Moviefone pointed out that Hollywood had been putting out movie soundtracks since at least 1938 (Disney’s Snow White…) but by the late-’70s they sometimes “eclipsed the films that they were connected to.” Loggins lucked out in the timing, but also in his approach. “I’m Alright” he wrote specifically for Caddyshack, but as the same publication pointed out he “created a timeless gem of a pop song which, instead of referring to anything (in) the film, simply recreated its anarchic, freewheeling style.”
Loggins musical output has slowed of late but he’s still active and has put out a couple of children’s albums most recently and last year released a new single, “The Great Adventure” as a fund-raiser for San Diego’s zoo and children’s hospital. Perhaps the fact that he has five kids influenced that direction in his career. His oldest boy, Crosby is also a singer. Kenny had a big year last year however, publishing an autobiography (Still Alright) and getting together with Jim Messina again for a couple of 50th anniversary concerts in L.A.