Your classic cheesy early ’80s romantic pop song of the day is “Key Largo” by Bertie Higgins. Released in September of 1981, it peaked at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
“Key Largo,” written by Bertie Higgins and his producer Sonny Limbo, is the one that references all those old Humphrey Bogart movies, and not always correctly. While comparing himself and his former lover to “Bogie and Bacall” in the movie Key Largo, he then enlists Bogie’s catchphrase from a different movie (and one with Ingrid Bergman instead of Lauren Bacall), Casablanca: “Here’s lookin’ at you kid.” Bogie didn’t say that in Key Largo, which always bothered me about this song. Quote old movies all you want, but be consistent!
All that said, I like the song. “Key Largo” is the kind of electric piano-driven catchy pop that ruled the airwaves in the late ’70s; I liken it to Rupert Holmes’ “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” and similar tunes. “Key Largo” came a bit later, at the start of the MTV revolution, which didn’t seem to hurt its popularity. Mr. Higgins did produce a video for it that saw a lot of airplay in 1982, probably because MTV had a shortage of videos to play in its early days. (It wasn’t the best video they ever aired, to be sure.)
The whole thing just drips with cheese and Miami Vice-style white suits and wide-collar pastel-patterned polyester shirts, as well as power boats in the Florida Keys. It definitely evokes an era.
Not surprisingly, Bertie Higgins hails from Florida, growing up the Tampa Bay area. He kicked around the lower levels of the music business for awhile, finally landing in Atlanta with producer Sonny Limbo. His first album was titled Just Another Day in Paradise and his first single was “Key Largo.” The second single from that album, “Just Another Day in Paradise,” peaked at #46 on the Hot 100 and #10 on the Adult Contemporary chart. He tried to ride the success of “Key Largo” with a similarly themed single titled “Casablanca,” but that one gratefully didn’t chart. Mr. Higgins stayed in the industry, however, and still does the occasional one-nighter today, as well as playing shows on the Las Vegas strip, where cheesiness rules.
