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Morning Edition
Cathy Wurzer

40 years since Rupert Holmes topped the Billboard chart with ‘Escape (The Piña Colada Song)’

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Rupert Holmes was No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart 40 years ago this week with “Escape (The Piña Colada Song.)”

Holmes later told Songfacts that he came up with the lyrics at the last minute, after reading a personal ad in the Village Voice and briefly wondering what would happen if he answered it. The song based on that what-if scenario became his biggest hit.

As he put it, "I have a feeling that if I saved an entire orphanage from a fire and carried the last child out on my shoulders, as I stood there charred and smoking, they'd say, "Aren't you the guy who wrote 'The Piña Colada Song?"