A Two-Decade Hit
Rupert Holmes is a talented guy. Not only is he a Tony Award-winning playwright, but he’s also a writer for television and a novelist! He released his fifth studio album, Partners in Crime, in 1979. From that breakthrough album came his mega-smash hit, Escape (The Piña Colada Song).
Rupert Holmes. Photo by Gary Gershoff / Getty Images
It was the last song to make number one on the Billboard hot 100 in the ‘70s, and it could have been the first in the ‘80s if it hadn’t been for one song. KC and The Sunshine Band knocked Holmes off his throne during the first week of the ‘80s with their song Please Don’t Go. Many people have made the mistake that Escape was the number one song on January 1, 1980.