Rupert Holmes Biography

Rupert Holmes	Born: 1947-02-24 Birthplace: Northwich, Cheshire, England Race: White Field: Musician Famous for: The Piña Colada Song Rupert Holmes Offical Website: http://www.rupertholmes.com/
Field: Musician

Rupert Holmes (born February 24, 1947 in Northwich, Cheshire) is a composer and writer who grew up in the northern New York City suburb of Nanuet, New York, and attended nearby Nyack High School. Though he is best known for the 1979 novelty hit "Escape" (later subtitled "The Piña Colada Song"), he has had a varied and distinguished career in several media. That one song is so strongly associated with him that, in one interview, he reflected that his tombstone might well be a giant pineapple.

As a recording artist, he broke through with 1974's Widescreen on Epic Records, which introduced him as a presenter of highly romantic, lushly orchestrated "story songs" that told a witty narrative punctuated by clever rhymes and a hint of comedy writing talent. His second, self-titled album led Rolling Stone to compare him to Bob Dylan in the sense of being an artist of unprecedented originality that commanded attention.

"Escape" was included on his fifth album, Partners in Crime, and reached the Hot 100 No. 1 Hits of 1979. The song hit #1 the late December, 1979 becoming the last song to top the pop chart in the 1970's. The song fell to #2 for the first week of January, 1980 and then rebounded to #1 the next week, making Holmes the only artist to ascend to the #1 spot with the same song in different decades.

Holmes wrote a song for the band The Buoys called "Timothy," possibly the only top-40 song about cannibalism. Holmes was not in the band, but did play piano on the track.

Holmes later became the first and so far only person single-handedly to receive Tony Awards for book, music and lyrics, for the 1986 Broadway musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

In 1987 his composition "You Got It All" (sometimes called "You Got It All Over Him") was a hit single for The Jets and later recorded by pop superstar Britney Spears.

In 1996 he created the television series Remember WENN for American Movie Classics. In 2003 he published his first novel, Where the Truth Lies (later filmed), followed in 2005 by Swing, a multimedia release combining a novel with a music CD providing clues to the mystery.