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“If you like piña coladas and gettin’ caught in the rain” might be some of the most familiar lyrics to music fans of the late '70s. But those words to the smash hit, “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” may have never happened had it not been for one simple lyric change.
Written by Rupert Holmes, who also released the track on Sept. 17, 1979, according to Songfacts, “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” originally included the lyrical hook: “If you like Humphrey Bogart / And getting caught in the rain.”
Realizing that he had already made references to various movies in his music, Holmes decided to explore a different lyrical direction, one that led with a feeling of wanting to get away. So he toyed with the idea of going on vacation.
"I thought, 'What can I substitute?'” he explained. "Well, this woman wants an escape, like she wants to go on vacation to the islands. When you go on vacation to the islands, when you sit on the beach, and someone asks you if you'd like a drink, you never order a Budweiser; you don't have a beer. You're on vacation, you want a drink in a hollowed-out pineapple with the flags of all nations and a long straw.”
“I thought, 'Let's see, there's daiquiri, mai tai, piña colada - I wonder what a piña colada tastes like, I've never even had one,'” he continued. “I thought that instead of singing 'If you like Humphrey Bogart,' with the emphasis on 'like,' I could start it a syllable earlier and go, 'If you like Piñ-a Coladas.'"
While the song may inspire listeners to dream of the ultimate beach vacation, with a drink in hand, earning a spot on Billboard’s 2024 list of ‘10 Best Summer Songs About Going to the Beach," “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” is about much more than a carefree summer getaway.
Close listeners will find that “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” actually explores the idea of temptation and marital dissatisfaction, with both partners secretly answering the same newspaper personal ad in search of someone new and exciting to run away with. However, they discover that their mysterious blind date is with each other.
“I was in my apartment, and there was a copy of The Village Voice. Sometimes I look at personal columns to get ideas for songs because people fascinate me,” Holmes recalled how he came up with the idea for the song. “I saw this ad that a woman had placed in which she described herself in such glowing terms that I thought to myself, 'Why on earth, if you're this wonderful, do you need to place an ad in the personal columns?' Trying not to be cynical, I thought, 'Let's be fair, maybe she's just looking for an adventure…. Then I thought to myself, 'What would happen if I answered this ad…With my stupid luck, I would answer the ad and find out it had been placed by the woman I was living with, never realizing that she was bored with me.”
“Escape (The Piña Colada Song),” which served as the lead single from Holmes’ fifth studio album, Partners in Crime, was a major success, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and becoming the final song of the ‘70s to do so. The track was also an international hit, charting in countries like Australia, Canada, Ireland, and others.
