1980 · Behind the Songs
A comedy about golf gets a theme song with its shoes off and its grin on.
When the makers of Caddyshack needed a theme song, Kenny Loggins gave them the sound of not caring — gloriously. “I’m Alright” bounces along on a jaunty groove, Loggins grinning through every line, and it fit the film’s anarchic country-club comedy like a glove. The single reached number seven, his first big movie hit.
The genius of the song is its shrug. Where other theme songs strain for importance, “I’m Alright” just leans back: whatever the gopher, the greenskeeper and the snobs throw at you, you’ll be fine. Loggins sings it with the ease of a man who has never lost an argument with a sand trap.
It opened the door to the soundtrack decade that would define him — and it remains the happiest three minutes in his catalog.