Thursday, February 4, 2016

Where are they now? Kenny Loggins

By +Brad Naylor

The name Kenny Loggins makes kids of today think about a list of usernames and passwords for people called Kenny, but to the older, more experienced mind, Kenny Loggins could possibly have been the single most important figure in movie soundtracks of the 80s. More so than Prince, Madonna, David Bowie or even Huey Lewis.

Kenny Loggins - Kenny's Logins
16 people have better beards than Kenny?
Kenny was the go to man for catchy 80s movie music and has featured on no less than 5 soundtrack cassettes during the decade that fashion forgot. These musical masterpieces include "I'm Alright", the theme from Caddyshack, "Footloose" from Footloose and Top Gun's "Danger Zone". With such recognizable hits on his resume, everyone expected Kenny to go from strength to strength.

Sadly Kenny hit a stumbling block in 1987 when he found himself committed to Sylvester Stallone's arm wrestling flop, Over the Top, with the song "Meet Me Halfway". A song about the level of effort put into every aspect of the movie. Over the Top almost destroyed Kenny's music career, as well as putting a big hole in Stallone's acting reputation which lasted until the release of Rambo III a year later.

Stallone's apologises for Over the Top
He's like a brown eyed Zooey Deschanel
In 1988 Loggins launched a comeback with what was sure to be a guaranteed hit. He recorded "Nobody's Fool", the theme song for Caddyshack II. Loggins and Chevy Chase were the only people from the first movie that signed on for the second one, probably because they were the only ones who didn't know how bad it would be, or they needed a paycheck and didn't care.

After fading away in the late 80s, Kenny had to reinvent his look for the 90s, which meant that he had to lose the beard. Some say that the beard had magical powers, while others blame the changing style of the new decade, but Kenny was far from being the successful soundtrack performer in the 90s that he was in the 80s. He recorded only 2 songs for two movies, neither of which were successful, or even vaguely memorable (the songs or the movies).

A quick trip to the internet provided the following details about those songs, "Two Different Worlds" from The Jungle Book (the live action version) and "For the First Time" from One Fine Day. Nope I hadn't heard of them either, and if you are really that interested then they are probably buried on YouTube somewhere.

Kenny's last movie song was written for The Tigger Movie (2000) and is called "Your Heart Will Lead You Home." The new new decade saw the return of facial hair for Loggins, and with it came a wisp of success. Loggins was in his 50s and had long since moved out of the Danger Zone with this acoustic ballad which is perfect for Tigger, Pooh, and their 100 acre friends.


So what does the future hold for Kenny Loggins and his mastery of movie music? There are rumors floating around the interwebs about Bruckheimer and Cruise making Top Gun 2 as well as a crazy plan to throw away some money to bring the gopher out of retirement to make Caddyshack 3, so there are still plenty of opportunities for a 68 year old movie song performer.

What's your favorite Kenny Loggins song? Can you believe that "Footloose" and "Meet Me Halfway" emanated from the same person? Where exactly is the Danger Zone? Share your thoughts and opinions below in our thoughts and opinions section.

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