B-side "White Line Fever" Format 7" (45 rpm) Genre Soft rock | Released September 1981 Recorded 1981 Length 3:20
3:05 (7") | |
"Key Largo" is a popular song recorded by Bertie Higgins in 1981. Released as a single in September 1981, the song became Higgins' only Top 40 hit in the United States in early 1982, when it peaked at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song spent 17 weeks in the Top 40 and was certified Gold by the RIAA. In addition, "Key Largo" topped the adult contemporary chart for two weeks. In the United Kingdom, the song reached #60 on the UK Singles Chart.
Contents
Background and content
The song's lyrics plead with a lover to reconsider ending a romance the singer compares to that depicted by the stars of the 1948 film Key Largo, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. The glamorous couple is recalled in the lyric We had it all / Just like Bogie and Bacall / Starring in our own late late show / Sailin' away to Key Largo. (In the film, though, Bogart and Bacall do not sail to Key Largo; Bogart arrives on a bus, and Bacall is already living there.) The lyrics also draw from the film Casablanca, in the lines "Here's looking at you, kid" and "Please say you will / Play it again". The song "Key Largo" was included on Higgins' album Just Another Day in Paradise. The album's title track topped out at #46.
In 2009, VH1 ranked "Key Largo" #75 on its program 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 80s.
Music video
A promotional music video was produced in 1982, filmed in and around Tarpon Springs, Florida. The video begins with Bertie Higgins leaning against a pole, smoking a cigarette, reminiscing. Later, the singer is seen walking with a young woman, played by then-17-year-old Patty Wolfe. The video then cuts to the pair riding in a motorboat. The final scene shows the couple walking along a beach during sunset.