Plus a cheesy Rupert Holmes video & some pina colada treat recipes.
Looong before the Piña Colada Song blasted through Chris Pratt’s Sony Walkman on cassette in Guardians of the Galaxy, I had the 45* on rotation along with Andy Gibb’s Shadow Dancing and Barry Manilow’s Copacabana. It was the last #1 song of the 70s & I spent countless hours trying to feather like Farrah (blowout tutorial here!) & thinking about the lyrics (dunes of the cake – what?), trying to figure out the whole personal ad thing and the clandestine bar meeting and the reconciliation.
- The title. Piña Colada = Umbrella drinks = tropical beach vacation. As opposed to, say, The White Russian in a Can Song (which Weird Al may have already written).
- The nostalgia of the personal ad. You circled before you swiped. Mostly no pictures. Pay per word. Meeting up in bars called O’Malley’s or the like.
- The fantasy. Same ‘ol dull routines happen in coupledom. Haven’t we all imagined making love in the dunes (of the cake) at midnight, with the perfect partner – the one that is not ours? Not that we’d actually place an ad or read through them in bed while our partner lays there sleeping. Nor would we go meet a total stranger…who we haven’t even seen a picture of… in a dark Irish pub…70s serial killer anyone? Still, Write to me and escape sounds good.
- The surprise ending. He knew her smile in an instant – it was his own lovely lady-Surprise! They laughed for a moment and shrugged the whole darned thing off – the fact that she placed an ad looking for NOT him and he answered an ad looking for NOT her. Cheaters! But they found piña coladas in common among other things they never knew! So simple. So 70s.
- The message that we never seem to learn. Sometimes (often) what we want (usually), what we go off in search of (possibly wrecking our lives and everyone else’s) is already right in front of us. The big duh. I never knew. Piña colada = pay attention.
- Please know what a 45 is: 45 RPM. Revolutions per minute. Single song with a b-side song not as good. (I’m old).
Must : Watch the video! Rupert Holmes sings the song LIVE-1980
from Classic 80s Videos – great youtube channel
