Kenny Loggins

Released: July 12, 1978

Songwriter: Michael McDonald Kenny Loggins

Producer: Bob James

He came from somewhere back
In his long ago
Sentimental fools don't see
Tryin' hard to recreate
What had yet to be created
Once in their lives

She musters a smile
For a nostalgic tale
Never comin' near what he wanted to say
Only to realize
It never really was

She had a place in his life
He never made her think twice

As he rises to her apology
Anybody else would surely know
He's watching her go

But what a fool believes
He sees
No wise man has the power
To reason away
What seems
To be
Is always better than nothing
And nothing at all

Is sending him somewhere back
In his long ago
Where he can still believe
There's a place in his life
Someday, somewhere
She will return

She had a place in his life
He never made her think twice

As he rises to her apology
Anybody else would surely know
He's watching her go

But what a fool believes
(I know she's never going away)
He sees
No wise man has the power
(Ain't nobody got it)
To reason away
What seems
(Nobody's gonna tell him)
To be
Is always better than nothing
And nothing at all

He's making a fool believe
He sees
No wise man has the power
(Ain't nobody got it)
To reason away
What seems
(Nobody's gonna tell him)
To be
Is always better than nothing
And nothing at all

Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Kenny Loggins has enjoyed more than three decades of success in the music business, as a songwriter and performer, mostly in a soft rock vein. He was born Kenneth Clarke Loggins in Everett, WA in early 1948, and the family later moved to Detroit, and finally to Alhambra, CA when he was in his teens. He initially turned to music as a way of compensating for his extreme shyness, and found that he was, indeed, a talented guitarist and had a voice. For a time in the late ‘60s he was based in Pasadena, studying at Pasadena City College. At the end of the decade, Loggins passed through the lineup of a band called Gator Creek, who were good enough to get signed to Mercury Records. The group recorded one self-titled album, which was issued in 1970 and included an early version of “Danny’s Song,” a track that he later recorded again as part of Loggins & Messina. He also spent time with a short-lived group called Second Helping, and was a member of the stage incarnation of the Electric Prunes during a later phase of that group’s history.

Loggins was proficient on the guitar and piano, but it was his songwriting that allowed him to make his first lasting impression on the music industry. He took a job as a staff writer for Wingate Music, for $100.00 a week, and later that year four of his songs ended up on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy. This event was particularly fortuitous, as that album was the first release by the newly reconstituted version of the group, and included what proved to be their biggest hit, “Mr. Bojangles.” The presence of the latter helped make Uncle Charlie one of the group’s biggest selling long-players; and the exposure generated a second hit in the form of Loggins’ own “House at Pooh Corner.”

The success of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s recordings brought Loggins to the attention of former Poco member Jim Messina, who was working as a staff producer at CBS. It was Messina’s intention to produce Loggins' debut album, but he also ended up playing and singing on the record, and it worked out so well that the two ended up in a duo. Loggins & Messina were among the most popular folk-based soft rock acts of the first half of the ‘70s and enjoyed a four-year string of successful albums.

more tracks from the album

Nightwatch

From the albums

Nightwatch (1978)
The Essential Kenny Loggins (2002)

Kenny Loggins popular songs

What a Fool BelievesKenny Loggins

Kenny Loggins

Nightwatch