The Daily Post Discovery Challenge: Numbers
So, I’ve talked about my love/obsession with Kenny Loggins music, right?
Music Video Unusual: “Heart to Heart”
Over at Retroist, Kenny Loggins Brags…and It’s Brilliant!
Over On Retroist, A Song with Heart…To Heart!
Yet Another Kenny Loggins Post…On Retroist!
Whenever I Call Retroist “Friend”
I hope he doesn’t mind getting this much mention by one person. Because I’m not some creepy stalker fan or anything.
Honest!
So, this week’s Discover Challenge asked contributors to explore things by the numbers, and while I liked some of the ideas, I’m always talking about music and how it makes me who I am. So, I decided to challenger myself, and go through Kenny Loggins’ music and find six upbeat songs. That part is totally difficult, and I could go on all day and yes, find more than six. However, I decided the bigger challenge was finding six more mellow/slower Kenny Loggins songs.
I like challenges, plus I’m more apt to listen to his more upbeat stuff. Here’s what I found!
First, the upbeat stuff!
If you don’t know this song, please check your pulse. No respectable Kenny Loggins playlist goes without the theme from the 1980 film Caddyshack. And since mine is (allegedly) respectable, this song is on the list. In fact, I think this was my first Kenny Loggins song to make the playlist I’ve since amassed. I even have two versions of it – the one everyone hears on the radio…and the longer version from the soundtrack.
This was Loggins’ first soundtrack song, it wasn’t his last, and well…it sets the tone for that second career he had that didn’t involve putting out non-soundtrack albums.
This is the live version. So much red clothing and long hair.
When I wanna feel the power of speech, I listen to this song, which combines copious amounts of Kenny Loggins face portraits, bad dancing, 80s hair, and artwork that comes to life. Oh, and Kenny wears leather pants. On some level, that’s hot.
Girls duke it out with the boys in a volleyball game that Kenny Loggins walks right into the middle of. Makes me reminiscent for that volleyball game Tom Cruise played in Top Gun…oh wait, this song is from that scene!!!!
Sometimes, you have a hit song attached to a hit movie, sometimes you have a hit song that isn’t from a movie, and sometimes, you have a hit song that is better than the movie it came from. “Nobody’s Fool” is that song, Caddyshack II is the movie the song came from…and well, if you’ve seen the movie, you know which one is better.
And here is an example from the better of the two Caddyshack films. This song played under the infamous pool scene (“Doodie!”) when the caddies were only allowed to swim for 15 minutes. How much trouble could a group of caddies cause in fifteen minutes? Have you seen this movie?
More importantly, the song doesn’t make a ton of sense against the scene, but it is alot of fun!
Another Kenny Loggins song that if you don’t know about, you should check your pulse. Ever have that need to just dance? Ever have that need to solve your problems through dance? Ever have that need…to take dance lessons so you can do this?
And six mellow ones…
I admit, I like anything that involves applause as part of the song. It goes back to when I was dancing, and freestyling to any song that included applause always felt like you were dancing in front of an actual audience. Loggins (and co-writer David Foster) can easily earn bragging rights about how they wrote this song in a half hour. And I thought I could do amazing things with writing in an hour.
This is why they get paid the big bucks, folks!
Do you remember this song from Caddyshack? I’m not even sure I do, and I’ve seen the movie many times. I think this song showed up in parts during the movie, but it is a really nice, calm song that doesn’t sound like it belongs in the movie from which is came.
I don’t watch kiddie movies anymore, and by the time The Tigger Movie came out, I was really over kiddie movies. This song, however, is quite sweet and reminds me of another song about a character from the Hundred Acre Woods…
When I was a teenager (heck, I still listen to it sometimes), I used to listen to this syndicated radio show that you may have heard of. It’s called Delilah, and it is one of those sappy call-in programs where people tell their tales of “We broke up, but I still love him/her,” “I wanna make a request to my mom/dad/brother/sister/cousin/aunt/uncle/grandma/child/goldfish/dog because of what they’ve done for me,” and the like. Ugh, it is so saccharine and makes me gag…and yet, I listened to it. Not because I’m all for listening to tales of woe, but I like the music Delilah plays. This song was such a staple during the 90s, and was always played whenever someone requested a song for their child. You try not hearing this song every night and not falling in love with the sentimental nature of it. There was a version in the 1970s of this song, but this is the updated version Loggins sang for his youngest child AND included on an album of the same name. Loggins didn’t lose his edge in the 1990s, he just became more appealing to the kids whose parents whose kids may have been conceived by one of Kenny’s earlier songs.
Oh don’t get offended by that statement, it’s probably true that there are kids who were the result of “Lead the Way.”
That song played during a love scene in Caddyshack, folks. Figure it out.
There was nothing halfway (see what I did there?) about this song, which was from a movie that combined the intensity of a child custody battle, with the intensity of the competition known as…arm wrestling.
That movie was Over The Top, that song was “Meet Me Halfway,” and this is another example of Kenny Loggins songs that were far better than the films they came from.
You heard “Nobody’s Fool,” so you get what I’m referring to.
Kenny…you shaved?!
The power beard/goatee is nothing to be taken lightly, worn by the likes of Barry Gibb, the other Gibbs (sans Andy), Michael McDonald, and yes, Kenny Loggins. My point here is that not just anyone can rock facial hair with effectiveness, and when that superpower is removed…well, at least the song is nice.
The song and the movie it comes from (One Fine Day) reminds me of eighth grade something fierce. Plus, it had George Clooney in the throes of his ER fame, trying to be a big movie star. And for the soundtrack, the King of the Movie Soundtrack! He doesn’t disappoint!
I think every 1970s love song/1970s hits compilation infomercial Time Life produced in the 1990s included this song. This is one of those songs where I say “Hey it’s Kenny Loggins….and that duet partner he had!” I remember getting this song (and a John Denver song) stuck in my head the day I was supposed to get on a plane and singing both songs. Back in those days (I was in college), I wouldn’t have bothered anyone with whatever song was stuck in my head, but now, I feel bad for anyone who has to listen to me sing. I’m sure that’s worse than me prattling on and on about how a song is stuck in my head.
Nah, you know what? Me singing is worse. WAY worse.
And there you have it – my challenge to find six Kenny Loggins songs that were upbeat (the easy part, I could have gone on and on), and six more that were well, more mellow. That part was harder. But it was fun.
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