Yes, "Please Come to Boston" is on the record, and remains his only hit as a recording artist (more in a minute on a few of the many other artists his songs shot to the top of the charts).
But there was so much more. His plaintive, expressive voice drove the likes of the boyhood lament "My Father's Fiddle" and the sad "Girl from Knoxville" and the assertive "My Lover's Keeper" deeply into my musical heart. They were nicely, richly produced, too, with 15 or 20 backing musicians and vocalists.
And dude looked so good on the album cover - all pensive and tinted and intense. It was, in short, an accomplished piece of work to my ear, especially from a self-identified apprentice to a genuine one.
But Dave Loggins, despite several more albums and many more fine songs, was soon dispatched to the one-hit-wonders bin, almost as if "Boston" did more harm than good for a guy who seemed to me to be a talented, driven and sure-to-rise singer-songwriter.
That, of course, was my perspective. And it's not as if he didn't rise in both those realms, including being named l 987's Country Songwriter of the Year - a year when his writing talents produced seven number-one hit songs.
Amid his slew of chart-scoring hits over the years:
• "Pieces of April," Three Dog Night, 1972
• "You've Got Me to Hold Onto," Tanya Tucker, 1976
• "Forty Hour Week," Alabama, 1985
• "Morning Desire," Kenny Rogers, 1985
• "One Promise Too Late," Reba McEntire, 1987
• "Fast Movin' Train," Restless Heart, 1990
• "She is His Only Need," Wynonna Judd, 1992
Plus, you know, he wrote the theme for the Masters Golf Tournament and that number-one hit from Anne Murray and her male accompanist - "Nobody Loves Me Like You Do." Yes, Dave Loggins was the male singer.
I've had this vague fantasy/wish over the years that he would pull a Carole King, all these years later. Was it a magical moment or what when she recorded, for instance, the 1961 Shirelles hit "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" on the "Tapestry" album in 1971, giving a song that she co-wrote a whole new and wonderful life?
I think it was, and I think the same kind of cool music could come out of David Loggins making an album of selected hits. He's got the voice. He's got the material.
Note: These archival articles are presented exactly as they appeared at the time of the issue in which they appeared. As such, all quotes, as well as references to temporal facts, artifacts and other items are contemporaneous to the date of original publication.