Kenny Loggins: The King of the Movie Soundtrack

Pop · Rock · Soundtracks

From Loggins & Messina harmonies to the biggest movie songs of the eighties.

The biography

Kenneth Clark Loggins was born January 7, 1948, in Everett, Washington, and raised in California. In the early seventies he paired with former Buffalo Springfield and Poco member Jim Messina as Loggins & Messina, a duo that sold millions with warm harmonies and easygoing craft — “Danny’s Song,” “Your Mama Don’t Dance” and “House at Pooh Corner” among them.

Going solo in 1976, Loggins sharpened his pop instincts: “Whenever I Call You Friend” with Stevie Nicks, the Grammy-winning “This Is It.” Then Hollywood called. “I’m Alright” from Caddyshack (1980) opened the floodgates, and by mid-decade he was the movies’ favorite voice — “Footloose” spent three weeks at number one, and “Danger Zone” made Top Gun fly.

Few singers are as inseparable from an era’s cinema as Kenny Loggins is from the eighties. Beneath the soundtrack fame sits a craftsman: a melodist with a sailor’s ease and a rocker’s drive, still touring the songs that taught a generation to dance, drive fast and feel alright.