By Melinda Lorge, Parade || “If you like piña coladas and gettin’ caught in the rain” might be some of the most familiar lyrics to music fans of the late ’70s. But those words to the smash hit, “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” may have never happened had it not been for one simple lyric change.
Written by Rupert Holmes, who also released the track on Sept. 17, 1979, according to Songfacts, “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” originally included the lyrical hook: “If you like Humphrey Bogart / And getting caught in the rain.”
Realizing that he had already made references to various movies in his music, Holmes decided to explore a different lyrical direction, one that led with a feeling of wanting to get away. So he toyed with the idea of going on vacation.
“I thought, ‘What can I substitute?’” he explained. “Well, this woman wants an escape, like she wants to go on vacation to the islands. When you go on vacation to the islands, when you sit on the beach, and someone asks you if you’d like a drink, you never order a Budweiser; you don’t have a beer. You’re on vacation, you want a drink in a hollowed-out pineapple with the flags of all nations and a long straw.”
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Go here to read how he came up with his brilliant lyric change:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/how-a-single-lyric-change-turned-a-1979-soft-rock-classic-into-a-no-1-hit/
Photo: Escape record cover | https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10164519283846210&set=a.65702416209
