Song: Escape (The Pina Colada song)
Artist: Rupert Holmes
Album: Partners in Crime
Year: 1979
Rupert Holmes: “The original lyrics said, "If you like Humphrey Bogart and getting caught in the rain."…
As I was getting on mic I thought to myself, I’ve done so many movie references to Bogart and wide-screen cinema on my earlier albums, maybe I shouldn’t do one here.
I thought, What can I substitute? 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 parasol. If the drink is blue you’d be very happy. And a long straw. I thought, What are those escape drinks? Let’s see, there’s daiquiri, mai tai, piña colada… I wonder what a piña colada tastes like? I’ve never even had one.
I thought that instead of singing, "If you like Humphrey Bogart," with the emphasis on
like, I could start it a syllable earlier and go, "If you like
piña-a coladas."