Music throwback: Kenny Loggins

But I LOVE the House on Pooh Corners story, how the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band wanted to record it, but the Disney lawyers put the kibosh on it. Loggins told then-girlfriend Marnie Walker how bummed he was. She talked to her daddy, who happened to be president of Disney.

Thanks to Marnie and her dad Card Walker, Disney “allowed the Dirt Band to put the song on their Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy album… Then Loggins put it on Loggins & Messina’s debut album the following year. And now, more than 40 years later, he still manages to make a song about Winnie the Pooh sound cool.”

And the Loggins & Messina partnership is another interesting narrative. “Jim Messina, formerly of Poco and Buffalo Springfield, was working as an independent record producer… in 1970 when he was introduced to Kenny Loggins, then a little-known singer-songwriter… When Columbia signed Loggins (with the assistance of Messina) to a six-album contract, recording began in earnest for Loggins’ debut album, with Messina as producer. [Messina] also assembled The Kenny Loggins Band by summoning old friends…

“Messina originally intended to lend his name to the Loggins project only to help introduce the unknown Loggins to Messina’s well-established audiences. But by the time the album was completed, Messina had contributed so much to the album – in terms of songwriting, arrangement, instrumentation, and vocals – that an ‘accidental’ duo was born. Thus, the full name of their first album was Kenny Loggins with Jim Messina Sittin’ In. Although the album went unnoticed by radio upon release, it eventually found success by autumn 1972, particularly on college campuses where the pair toured heavily…

I remember singing the chorus of “This Is It” with my sister Leslie when we both visited my parents and sister Marcia in Charlotte, but what I did not know was that it was “for Loggins’ ailing father who had to choose between life and death. The song earned Loggins the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. NBC used the song as theme music for its coverage of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in 1980 and 1981.” Yeah, I do remember the constant play during March Madness.

Listen to

Loggins & Messina
House at Pooh Corner
Your Mama Don’t Dance