Yummy Rummy

If you like pina coladas,
And getting caught in the rain.

This tune has been stuck in my head for the past couple of days.  It was written by Rupert Holmes and released in 1979 as the single from the album Partners in Crime.  It's commonly referred to as "The Pina Colada Song", but its actual title is Escape, (and later referred to as Escape (The Pina Colada Song).

The song is about a man who is unhappy in his marriage and so peruses the personal ads.  He notices one ad in particular that outlines several intriguing interests.  He responds in kind with another personal ad and arranges to meet the woman who placed the original ad.  When the pair finally meet at a bar named O'Malley's, they discover that they are already married and actually do have more in common than they had realized.  The song ends on a cheerful note, despite the fact that both partners were seeking new relationships.

This song made Rupert Holmes famous, with the cruel irony that it became his defining success.  Holmes is also an accomplished author and composer, and has a long list of acclaimed works that have nothing to do with coconut-flavoured beverages.  He is the first person in Broadway history to win Best Book, Best Music and Best Lyrics for his (The Mystery of Edwin) Drood, which also won a Tony award for best musical (1985).  He has published two novels (one of which has been made into a movie with Kevin Bacon).  It's actually embarrassing how he is best known for one pop tune, when so much of his work has appeared in television, movies, and on the Broadway stage.

In reference to the song, though, the line was originally If you like Humphrey Bogart, but, because he had decided that he was using a lot of movie references in his work, he chose to change it to a different form of "escape."  At almost the last minute, he changed the lyric to one of the first exotic-sounding cocktail he could think of: pina colada (made with rum, pineapple juice, and coconut cream).

Now we know.