Rupert Holmes – Record-facts…

posted by record facts

Rupert Holmes (born David Goldstein; February 24, 1947), is a British-American composer, singer-songwriter, dramatist and author. He is widely known for the hit singles “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” (1979) and “Him” (1980).

All ten songs on “Adventure” are all so tightly written, with clever little changes in all the right spots, that it’s hard to perceive these tracks as anything less than genuine labors of love.
Take ‘Morning Man’, which boasts an even more daring usage of the modulating chorus effect he employed on ‘Him’.
Or how about ‘Cold’, which fittingly sounds quite icy and mysterious (he unintentionally approaches post-punk territory at points) and features another chordally dense chorus?
A more accurate portrayal of what this album has to offer, however, would be track 3, ‘Blackjack’. This song sounds straight out of an ‘80s rock musical, with its almost cinematically dynamic composition playing off of probably my favorite chorus on the entire record.
Sure, it’s cheesy, but there’s an endearing, simplistic quality to Rupert’s voice that makes the song (and the rest of the album) resonate with me in a way that it likely wouldn’t if sung by some flashy Broadway singer.
One thing I have neglected to mention up to this point is that I have a serious aversion to musical theatre, and the way its songs are composed. I may be gay, but I’m not that kind of gay. So while these really theatrical moments are quite offputting for me and greatly hinder my enjoyment of the album, it’s a testament to Rupert’s inherent likability and penchant for melodicism that very few of the songs on here make me want to hold a garage sale for the sole purpose of selling off my ears.
Other songs of note include ‘Crowd Pleaser’, which finds him trying to ‘rock out’, but in a theatre nerd kind of way.
It, perhaps unsurprisingly, sounds remarkably similar to his production work for Sparks on their Big Beat album, another instance of glitzy theatre kids trying to fool people into thinking they could share a bill with Molly Hatchet.
And ‘I Don’t Need You’ is probably the cutest song on here, boasting a catchy hook that is repeated to great effect towards the end. It’s so sugary it would make the Kool-Aid Man weep, and that’s just how I like my music.
The album closes with ‘Special Thanks’, on the surface a generic yacht rock piano ballad in the same vein as the theme to Cheers, but as you listen some utterly perplexing lyrics jump out at you.
In the first stanza alone, surrounded by fairly cliché lines about being grateful for one’s opportunities (and I have no doubt Rupert truly was thanking his lucky stars in 1980), he croons, “We’ll all turn to pumpkins one fine day.”

Track listing

Adventure – 4:02
The Mask – 3:49
Blackjack – 3:09
The O’Brien Girl – 4:38
Crowd Pleaser – 3:41
You’ll Love Me Again – 3:11
Cold – 5:43
Morning Man – 3:58
I Don’t Need You – 3:22
Special Thanks – 2:54

Companies, etc.

Recorded At – RPM Studios
Mixed At – RPM Studios
Produced For – The Holmes Line Of Records
Pressed By – MCA Pressing Plant, Gloversville

Credits

Art Direction – George Osaki
Backing Vocals – Chrissy Faith
Coordinator [Production Coordinator] – Steve Jankowski
Design – Andy Engel
Drums, Percussion, Backing Vocals – Benny Gramm
Electric Bass – John Caruso, Seth Glassman
Engineer – Michael Delugg
Engineer [Assistant] – Dominick Maita
Executive-Producer, Creative Director [Creative Supervision] – Normand Kurtz
Guitar, Backing Vocals – Dean Bailin
Photography By – Richard Aaron
Piano – Phil Budhos
Producer [Associate] – Dean Bailin, Michael Delugg
Producer, Words By, Music By, Lead Vocals, Keyboards, Synthesizer [Orchestral Sounds] – Rupert Holmes