Kenny Loggins
Kenneth Clark Loggins is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His early songs were recorded with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1970, which led to seven albums recorded with Jim Messina as Loggins and Messina from 1972 to 1977. His early soundtrack contributions date back to A Star Is Born in 1976, and he is known as the "King of the Movie Soundtrack". As a solo artist, Loggins experienced a string of soundtrack successes, including an Academy Award nomination for "Footloose" in 1985. Finally Home was released in 2013, shortly after Loggins formed the group Blue Sky Riders with Gary Burr and Georgia Middleman. He has won two Grammy Awards and a Daytime Emmy Award; and was nominated for an Academy Award, a Tony Award, and a Golden Globe Award.
Early life
Loggins was born in Everett, Washington, the youngest of three brothers. His father, Robert George Loggins, was a salesman of English and Irish ancestry, while his mother, Lina, was a homemaker of Italian descent, from Avezzano. They lived in Detroit and Seattle before settling in Alhambra, California. According to his biography, Loggins was born on the birthday of his brother, Bobby. As such, and allowing him to keep a Christmas promise his father had made his brother, Bobby got to name his new brother Clark Kent Loggins. Later, his first and middle names were flipped, and Kent was changed to Kenneth.Loggins attended San Gabriel Mission High School, graduating in 1966. He formed a band, The Second Helping, that released three singles during 1968 and 1969 on Viva Records. Greg Shaw described the efforts as "excellent punky folk-pop records" that were written by Loggins who was likely to be the bandleader and singer as well; Shaw included "Let Me In" on both Highs in the Mid-Sixties, Volume 2 and the Pebbles, Volume 9 CD.
Loggins had a short gig playing guitar for the New Improved Electric Prunes in 1969 before writing four songs for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band that were included on their album Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy. During his early 20s, he was in the band Gator Creek with Mike Deasy. The first recorded version of "Danny's Song" was included on their only album, released on Mercury Records.
Loggins and Messina
, formerly of Poco and Buffalo Springfield, was working as an independent record producer for Columbia Records in 1970 when he was introduced to Loggins, then a little-known singer-songwriter who was signed to ABC-Dunhill.The two recorded a number of Loggins's compositions in Messina's home living room. When Columbia signed Loggins to a six-album contract, recording began in earnest for Loggins's debut album, with Messina as producer. He assembled The Kenny Loggins Band by summoning his old friends bassist Larry Sims and drummer Merel Bregante, violinist/multireedist Al Garth, and multireedist Jon Clarke. Keyboardist Michael Omartian also played on the album and, despite dropping out at the start of the touring, continued to play keyboards on the next two albums. Los Angeles–based session percussionist Milt Holland, described by Messina as an ethnomusicologist, also contributed.
Messina originally intended to lend his name to the Loggins project only to help introduce the unknown Loggins to Messina's well-established Buffalo Springfield and Poco audiences. However, by the time the album was completed, Messina had contributed so much to the album in terms of songwriting, arrangement, instrumentation, and vocals that an "accidental" duo was born. Thus, the full name of their first album was Kenny Loggins with Jim Messina Sittin' In. The album's first single release, the Caribbean-flavored "Vahevala", found top 3 success on WCFL on May 18, 1972.
Although the album went unnoticed by radio upon release, it eventually found success by fall 1972, particularly on college campuses where the pair toured heavily. Loggins and Messina's vocal harmonies meshed so well that what was begun as a one-off album became an entity in itself. Audiences regarded the pair as a genuine duo rather than as a solo act with a well-known producer. Instead of continuing to produce Loggins as a solo performer, they decided to record as a duo, Loggins & Messina.
"When our first album, 'Sittin' In', came out, we started receiving a lot of excitement about the music and good sales", Messina recalled in 2005.
Both members of the duo were guitarists: Loggins played acoustic and electric rhythm guitar and harmonica; and Messina played lead acoustic and electric guitar, mandolin, and Dobro. Over the next four years, they produced five more albums of original material in the studio, plus one album of covers of other artists' material and two live albums. They sold 16 million records and were the most successful duo of the early 1970s, surpassed later in the decade only by Daryl Hall & John Oates. Their work also included Lynn Anderson's "Listen to a Country Song", which was released in 1972 and reached No. 4 on the US Billboard Hot Country Singles chart, and "Danny's Song" and "A Love Song" for Anne Murray, which reached No. 7 and No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart in 1973 and 1974 respectively. The latter two songs also hit No. 1 on the Canadian RPM Top Singles chart. Later studio albums often found Loggins and Messina more as two solo artists sharing the same record than as a genuine partnership. As they both noted in 2005, their collaboration eventually became more of a competition. Following their January 1976 release of Native Sons and a final concert in Honolulu, Hawaii, on September 25, 1976, the pair amicably and quietly parted to pursue solo careers. A greatest-hits album, The Best of Friends, was released in November 1976. Two months later, a live album, Finale was released, more by record company decision than one intended by the artists, one year after the duo had come to an end.
Solo career
In 1977, Loggins produced his first solo album, Celebrate Me Home, which included the successful song "I Believe in Love", originally sung by Barbra Streisand in A Star Is Born. Nightwatch, a popular album released in 1978, included the hit song "Whenever I Call You Friend", a duet with Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac, co-written with Melissa Manchester. Loggins followed that in 1979 with Keep the Fire and in 1982 with High Adventure. The latter contained his rock duet with Journey frontman Steve Perry, "Don't Fight It", which rose to No. 17 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. Loggins abandoned the harmonica in his solo career but continued to play guitar, just as he had done with Loggins & Messina.With Michael McDonald
Loggins also co-wrote the song "What a Fool Believes" with Michael McDonald. Each recorded his own version of it, with McDonald recording as a member of the Doobie Brothers. Loggins' version was released first, but the Doobie Brothers' version achieved greater success, reaching No. 1 on the Hot 100 and earning Loggins and McDonald the 1980 Grammy for Song of the Year.In 1979, Loggins and McDonald wrote "This Is It", about summoning one's inner resources and seizing the moment. As Loggins told American Songwriter in 1987, "The best musical statements are usually the ones that aren't calculated and the ones that come out in the largest chunks. Michael McDonald and I must have written 'This Is It' four times. The first three times it was a love song, 'Baby I this, baby I that…,' and we both said, 'Eh! This is boring. This song is not working as a love song.' Then I had a fight with my dad when he was going into the hospital because he gave me the feeling that he was ready to check out. He'd given up, he wasn't thinking in terms of the future, and I was so pissed at him. It was real emotional. That afternoon, I was meeting with Michael to work on new tunes and I walked in and said, 'Man, I got it. It's 'This Is It.'"
Soundtracks
During the next decade, Loggins became known as the King of the Movie Soundtrack after recording multiple successful songs for films. It began with "I'm Alright" from Caddyshack. Hits followed with "Footloose" and "I'm Free " from Footloose; "Meet Me Half Way" from Over the Top; and "Danger Zone" and "Playing with the Boys" from Top Gun. Loggins also performed "Nobody's Fool" for the film Caddyshack II. He performed as a member of USA for Africa on the famine-relief fundraising single "We Are the World", which led to an appearance performing "Footloose" at the Philadelphia leg of the July 13, 1985, Live Aid famine-relief dual-venue charity concert and global television broadcast.During the 1990s, Loggins continued his album career, including the popular 1994 children's album Return to Pooh Corner, which included the title single, a reworking of "House at Pooh Corner", written for his newborn son Luke.
In 1991, Loggins recorded and produced Leap of Faith, which included the single "Conviction of the Heart". Vice President Al Gore called this song "the unofficial anthem of the environmental movement". On Earth Day 1995, Loggins performed at The National Mall in Washington, D.C., before a live audience of 500,000.
In 1997, Loggins released the album The Unimaginable Life, based on a book he co-wrote with his then-wife Julia. Tracks include "Now That I Know Love", "The Art of Letting Go", and "One Chance at a Time". The album was produced by Loggins and Randy Jackson with background vocals by Skyler Jett, Lamont VanHook, and Howard Smith.
In 1998, Loggins recorded a version of the Sesame Street song "One Small Voice" for the ABC television special Elmopalooza, which was included as a track on the Grammy Award-winning soundtrack album.
Other work
Loggins scored a No. 1 single on the Billboard adult contemporary chart in 1997 with "For the First Time". In 2000, he performed the theme song for Disney's The Tigger Movie, "Your Heart Will Lead You Home", which he co-wrote with Richard and Robert Sherman.In 1999, he appeared as himself on the television show Dharma & Greg in the episode "Tye-Dying the Knot", performing at Abby and Larry's wedding.
In 2004, Loggins appeared as himself in episode three, "Well Well Well," of Fox TV's Method & Red. In 2005, Loggins and Messina gave a nationwide tour that resulted in the CD and DVD Loggins and Messina Sittin' In Again. The tour's concerts were three hours long with an intermission and included an acoustic set in the middle. Complete with a set change that turned the stage into an old gas station setting, the show had a large IMAG video screen that showed old footage of the band, as well as tribute footage of recently deceased former L&M bandmate Jon Clarke. In 2007, Loggins joined the new recording company 180 Music for the release of his album How About Now. That year, he was also inducted into Hollywood's Sunset Boulevard RockWalk.
In 2009, he recorded a new children's album, All Join In, but it was not released due to complications with his record company. In 2009, Loggins and Messina toured the United States and Canada, reviving their "Sittin' In Again tour". In 2011, he performed a short tour in South East Asia, including Manila, Philippines, and Singapore. On June 3, 2011, he performed at the Arcada Theater in St. Charles, Illinois. He stopped by the Eddie and Jobo Show in Chicago to talk about his music, his personal life and what kind of show you can expect from him.
The 2016 parody film Donald Trump's The Art of the Deal: The Movie features an original song by Loggins, The Art of the Deal, written specifically for the film. In July 2016 Loggins performed on ABC's Greatest Hits.
In January 2017, Loggins was featured with McDonald on Thundercat's single "Show You the Way". Loggins made a cameo appearance as himself in episode 1 of season 3 of the television show Grace and Frankie.
In October 2018, he received the inaugural Music Icon Award at the San Diego International Film Festival.
On September 22 and 24, 2022, Loggins and Messina reunited at the Hollywood Bowl for a 50th anniversary weekend celebration of when they played the Bowl supporting their debut album, Sittin' In. The opening set featured songs like "Danny's Song" and "House at Pooh Corner". Loggins took the second act on his own, performing some of his best-known hits such as "I'm Alright", "Footloose", and "Danger Zone".