Soundtrack Of My Life: Kenny Loggins

The first song I remember hearing

Bing Crosby – ‘Moonlight Becomes You’

“I was a little guy, probably seven or eight, and my dad had difficulty sleeping so sometimes I’d get to stay up with him. He turned me on to the Bing Crosby road movies. As I got older, we’d watch the Late Show together. And that’s where I would get more connected to the music that he loved.”

The first gig I went to

Cream at The Shrine, Los Angeles, 1965

“Frank Zappa was opening for them. Fleetwood Mac was on the [bill] as well, as I remember Mick Fleetwood playing wooden balls hanging from his fly with his sticks. I thought ‘that’s different’. It was all very impressive as you can imagine.”

The first song I fell in love with

The Isley Brothers – ‘For The Love Of You, Parts 1 & 2’

“[Ronald] Isley was lead singer of the band and that high falsetto was something that I was working on at the time. It’s the coalition of the girl, the song, the time, what you’re listening to, something of that is probably going to integrate into that love affair.”

The first album I bought

Erik Satie – ‘Gymnopédie’

“I rode my bike to the record store from school, probably eighth grade [year nine] to get it. You didn’t get to hear that kind of music on the radio then, but it blew my mind. You had to go and buy it. Luckily an older friend of my big brother played it for me.”

The song that reminds me of home

Kenny Loggins – ‘Celebrate Me Home’

“I’m 74, I’ve had a lot of homes. When you say ‘reminds you of home’ I’m not sure which home to even think of. Originally I wrote it with Heaven in mind, thinking of the ultimate home. When my big brother died they played it at his funeral without asking me ‘what would you like to play for your brother’s funeral?’ So my sister-in-law got the ultimate message of the song as well. I’ve seen it used in that way, but primarily it was adopted as a holiday song. It’s used more literally as going home.”

The song I wish I’d written

The Beatles – ‘Let It Be’

“There’s a dozen songs that fall into that category but I’ve been listening to Paul McCartney‘s autobiography lately so that’s the one that’s more on my mind. It evokes an emotional response and brings comfort to those of us who get caught up in our heads and whatever craziness is going on in our lives. That level of deep acceptance is the kind of thing that I try to portray in my own songs. I want to give that gift to some degree or another.”

The song I do at karaoke

Kenny Loggins – ‘Danger Zone’

“No one expects me to do it. It brings everybody into that moment. With karaoke, you can get up and do something that no one else would sing or could sing but it’s more fun for me to do ‘Danger Zone’ when it makes everybody go ‘Yeah! Have another beer!’”

The song I can’t get out of my head

Dua Lipa and Elton John – ‘Cold Heart’

“It’s usually a shitty song. We call it an ear-worm. My mind likes to take little bites of songs and I’ll run the same four bars over and over again so I have to play something else to make it go away. But Elton John and Dua Lipa, it’s brilliant. I love the pairing. I’d love to do something like that myself. Elton writes one hook after another and the whole song is a hook. The verse is a hook, the bridge is a hook, he’s so great at hooks!”

The song I can no longer listen to

Steppenwolf – ‘Born To be Wild’

“I had a girlfriend years ago who played it over and over and over again until I wanted to throw her and the record out of the window.”

The song that makes me want to dance

David Bowie – ‘Modern Love’

“I actually borrowed that groove when I wrote ‘Footloose’. I had an attorney asked me one time in a deposition ‘what do you mean borrow?’ and I said ‘well, I fully intend on giving it back’.”

The song I want played at my funeral

Kenny Loggins – ‘Conviction Of The Heart’

“I would normally say ‘Celebrate Me Home’ because it was my intention when I wrote it. Not for my funeral per se but that sense of connection and merging. But the other one would be ‘Conviction Of The Heart’, because it sums up my personal philosophy of life. As opposed to singing ‘Celebrate Me Home’, which is more about where I’m going, ‘Conviction Of The Heart’ is more about who I am and where I’ve been.”

‘Top Gun: Maverick’, featuring Kenny Loggins on the soundtrack, is available to digitally own now and on 4K Ultra HD + Blu-Ray Steelbook, 4K UHD, Blu-Ray and DVD on October 31