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Escape (The Piña Colada Song)

"Escape (The Piña Colada Song)"
Rupert Holmes Pina.jpg
Single by Rupert Holmes
from the album Partners in Crime
B-side "Drop It"
Released September 21, 1979
Format 7"
Recorded 1979
Genre Soft rock
Length 4:35 (album version)
3:50 (single version)
Label Infinity Records
Writer(s) Rupert Holmes
Producer(s) Rupert Holmes, Jim Boyer
Rupert Holmes singles chronology
"Let's Get Crazy Tonight"
(1978)
"Escape (The Piña Colada Song)"
(1979)
"Him"
(1980)

"Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" is a song written and recorded by British-born American singer Rupert Holmes for his album Partners in Crime. As the lead single for the album, the pop song was recommended by Billboard for radio broadcasters on September 29, 1979, then added to prominent US radio playlists in October–November. Rising in popularity, the song peaked at the end of December to become the last US number one song of the 1970s.

The song speaks, in three verses and three choruses, of a man who is bored with his current relationship because it has become routine and he desires some variety. One night, he reads the personal advertisements in the newspaper and spots an ad that catches his attention: a woman who is seeking a man who, among other little things, must like piña coladas. Intrigued, he takes out an ad in reply and arranges to meet the woman "at a bar called O'Malley's", only to find upon the meeting that the woman is actually his current partner. The song ends on an upbeat note, showing that the two lovers realized they have more in common than they had suspected, and that they do not have to look any further than each other for what they seek in a relationship.

After its release as a single, the song became immediately popular, though initial sales were slow due to the song's actual title, "Escape", going unnoticed in the place of the oft-repeated cocktail. Holmes reluctantly agreed to rename the song "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)". The song shot up through the charts, becoming the last number-one Billboard Hot 100 hit of 1979 (and the last number one song of the 1970s). "Escape" returned to number one again on the Billboard Hot 100 charts during the second week of 1980, having been displaced for a week by KC and the Sunshine Band's "Please Don't Go"., Thus it is the only pop song to hit #1 in the US in two different decades.

The song was the 11th best selling single of 1980 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Recorded for Holmes' Partners in Crime (1979) album, the song came from an unused track for which Holmes wrote temporary or “dummy” lyrics:


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