What was Kenny Loggins’ Last U.S. Top-40 Hit?

They say you can’t go home again. In the world of movies, that’s true sometimes since we know that sequels can get a bit dicey, often failing to capture the spirit of the originals and coming off like pale imitations.

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But a musical artist just might be able to recapture the magic by going back to a familiar assignment. Kenny Loggins was able to manage that when he recorded what turned out to be his final Top-40 hit single in the U.S.

Back to the Shack

They don’t call him the King of the Movie Soundtrack for nothing. Movies as wide-ranging in tone and content as Footloose, Top Gun, and Over the Top all benefited wildly from having Kenny Loggins deliver their signature songs. And Loggins himself did pretty well by having his songs featured in that fashion as well.

Loggins’ movie dominance all began in 1980, when he was convinced by producer Jon Peters to record a song for a movie that would focus on the antics of golf caddies. He was given a script, and although he wasn’t too sure about the dancing gopher, Loggins focused on the emotions of the film’s protagonist to write the song “I’m Alright.” The film, of course, was the comedy classic Caddyshack, and Loggins’ song, played in the opening moments, bounded into the Top 10.

That opened up the floodgates for Loggins. It seemed like he could do no wrong when it came to capturing just what was needed to accentuate a movie’s plot, whether by his songwriting or performance. In 1988, he was given the chance to go back where all this movie-song success started.

“Fool” Me Twice

Caddyshack II was simply inevitable, no matter how bad of an idea it turned out to be. Jon Peters, producing the sequel in an effort to catch lightning in a bottle twice, naturally turned to Loggins first when it came to a theme song. How could Loggins refuse, considering his history with the franchise?

Loggins was paired up with composer Michael Towers to write the song. The lyrics he wrote come from the perspective of an underestimated underdog who has no doubt he’ll prevail. He even threw in some references to the movie this time around, with phrases like Back to the shack and Got to learn to be the ball.

The song was titled “Nobody’s Fool,” which featured a video full of clips from the movie and soared up the charts upon its release. Loggins ended up with the fifth Top-10 hit of his solo career after it landed at No. 8.

The Aftermath

As it would turn out, “Nobody’s Fool” turned out to be one of the few things associated with Caddyshack II to come away relatively unscathed. Of the principals from the first movie, only Chevy Chase returned, and that was just a glorified cameo. Rodney Dangerfield’s late-in-the-game decision to back out, and the decision to replace him with Jackie Mason, certainly didn’t help.

But the ultimate problem with Caddyshack II was the movie tried to match the original’s story and characters pretty much beat-for-beat. Drained of all originality and charm, it was ravaged by critics and went down as a huge bust.

None of that stopped Kenny Loggins from thriving with “Nodody’s Fool.” Some things remain unaffected by the passing of time or the changing of taste. Loggins’ voice livening up a movie is clearly one of them.

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