Anaheim
Loggins began singing and playing guitar in high school, and scored a job as a songwriter for ABC/Wingate out of college for $100 a week after a brief, unlikely stint as a guitarist for psych-rock band the Electric Prunes. One of the first tunes he offered up was the beloved "House at Pooh Corner," which became one of several Loggins-penned hits the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band recorded for 1970's Uncle Charlie and His Dog Teddy.
Halfway through his three-year gig as a Wingate staffer, Loggins met the man who would help shape the early part of his career: Jim Messina. The two started to work on Loggins' solo debut with Messina behind the glass, and Kenny fell in love with a track his producer had penned called "Peace of Mind." Before he knew it, the pair of creative partners had morphed into a duo, and Loggins and Messina was born.
Their first album, Kenny Loggins With Jim Messina Sittin' In, came out in 1971, featuring Loggins' own version of "Pooh Corner" and the beautiful ballad "Danny's Song," which he'd written when his brother's wife gave birth to the couple's first child. The prolific recording and touring duo released a studio album every year from 1971 to 1976, wrapping with Native Sons. The time had come for Loggins to cast off on his own.
"When I recorded Celebrate Me Home, I was very excited, I was like an arrow pulled back in a bow. I'd waited 7 years to finally make my solo album," Loggins says. His 1977 Phil Ramone-produced solo debut went platinum and included "I Believe in Love," the song he'd written for Barbra Streisand to perform in the film A Star Is Born. Loggins wrote the perfect tune with his friend, Melissa Manchester - "Whenever I Call You Friend" from his 1978 LP Nightwatch - which he credits as "the moment that launched my solo career."
In the 1980s, Loggins also earned a new title: king of the movie soundtrack. Film producer Jon Peters called him in to see a rough cut of Caddyshack, and Loggins provided the cult classic's smash "I'm Alright." When a pal asked Loggins to write a few songs for an as-yet-unmade picture called Footloose, he whipped up a No. 1 blockbuster. He scored a track on Tom Cruise's Top Gun ("Playing With the Boys") and performed that movie's indelible hit "Danger Zone."
Several years later, Loggins - a deeply committed environmentalist with a long history of advocating for the planet and green parenting - wrote a passionate plea for change called "Conviction of the Heart" that appeared on his 1991 album Leap of Faith. The song was so powerful, it caught the ear of Al Gore, who later called it the "unofficial anthem of the environmental movement."
After a stunning run of solo albums, a Christmas album, and two LPs for children (Return to Pooh Corner and More Songs From Pooh Corner), Loggins reunited with his former partner Jim Messina for the Sittin' In Again Tour in 2005 (the duo toured again in 2009).
Though he's got 12 platinum albums, a pair of Grammys, and hits on almost all the Billboard charts under his belt, Loggins is far from done. Having just released his latest children’s project, the book Footloose (Moondance Press, an imprint of Quarto Publishing Group USA, October 17, 2016), inspired by his 1985 Oscar® nominated and Grammy® Award-winning “Song of the Year,” he's still looking forward to what's next. "I feel very lucky that this is the way I make my living, and not a lot of people can say that," Loggins says. "I've been lucky that I love what I do and I get to keep doing it."
Kenny Loggins’s tracks
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published on 2021-01-28T18:38:14Z
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published on 2014-10-21T20:06:14Z