I'm Alright by Kenny Loggins

Album: Caddyshack Soundtrack (1980)

Charted: 7

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Songfacts®:

"I'm Alright" is the theme to the movie Caddyshack, and plays at the beginning and end of the film. The song is associated with the gopher who fends off the attacks of overeager and slightly deranged groundskeeper Carl Spackler (Bill Murray), who blows up most of the golf course in an attempt to kill the creature. After the blast, the gopher emerges, safe and sound, and dances to this song.
Loggins saw a rough cut of the movie before he wrote the song. He used the character Danny Noonan, who was a caddy with hopes for a brighter future, as inspiration.

Loggins told the St. Petersburg Times: "The character was trying to figure out where he fit. But at the same time he wanted people to leave him alone and let him find his own way. So I wanted to grab him and summarize that character, and that's what 'I'm Alright' is doing."

According to Loggins, the rough cut was to a Bob Dylan song. (Perhaps "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)"?)
Eddie Money was recording in a nearby studio, and Loggins convinced him to sing a line on this song. That's him in the background singing, "You make me feel good!" Money was unhappy that he never got credit for his contribution. "I'm not a fan of Kenny Loggins to tell you the truth," he told Cincinnati morning show host Kidd Chris of WEBN in 2014. "I sang the bridge in that. We were label mates, you know."
Loggins also provided the theme to the 1988 movie Caddyshack II with his song "Nobody's Fool." Loggins couldn't help this movie, as it was reviled by Caddyshack fans who felt it desecrated the original.
"I'm Alright" was used in a 2004 commercial for American Express where Tiger Woods plays Bill Murray's character from Caddyshack and battles the gopher, re-creating many of the scenes shot-for-shot. This time though, he catches the gopher with the help of a pest control expert who lures him out of his hole by playing "I'm Alright."
When Loggins launches back into the chorus partway through the song, he stutters on the lyric, singing, "I- I'm Alright," which was a happy accident. "I actually misjudged the entrance. In the arrangement, I delayed that entrance but I forgot when I was doing the lead vocal," he told Rock History Music. Then he remembered when the Mamas & the Papas had a similar fortuitous flub in "I Saw Her Again," so he decided to keep it in.
Loggins first met Jon Peters, the executive producer of Caddyshack, when he wrote the song "I Believe In Love" for Peters' 1976 production of A Star Is Born, starring Barbra Streisand.
This was also used in these TV shows:

The Simpsons ("Wad Goals" - 2021)
Lucifer ("Who's Da New King Of Hell?" - 2019)
American Dad! ("Francine's Flashback" - 2005)
Futurama ("Obsoletely Fabulous" - 2003)
The X-Files ("Je Souhaite" - 2000)
Freaks And Geeks ("Pilot" - 1999)

And in these movies:

Zombieland: Double Tap (2019)
Bring Me The Head Of Mavis Davis (1997)
If you're gonna do a Caddyshack spoof, you're pretty much obligated to use this song. It shows up along with Serena Williams, Tony Romo, Alex Morgan, Brian Cox, Canelo Alvarez, Michael O'Keefe, Nneka Ogwumike and the gopher, in a 2023 commercial for Michelob Ultra set at Bushwood Country Club. The spot aired during the Super Bowl.

Comments: 18

Telephone Bill from IndyDoes ANYONE know of how they got together for the incredible vocal bridge? Anybody checking any reaction video for this song just LOSES it during hearing it for the first time, and after all these years NO ONE has anything linking to the session?
Paul Mccartney from Columbus, OhioThe guitar solo at the end of the song with about 40 seconds left, sounds exactly like the guitar solo in Copperhead Road by Steve Earle.
Kevin from Us Via HungaryI KNEW IT!!!

I don't know if I knew it at the time or I just noticed it but I heard Eddie Money in the background. That's actually how I found your article. I searched for Background Singers to see if I was right.

I love Kenny Loggins and Eddie Money too. I was sad when Eddie passed away. My ex and I saw him in concert 3 times. Two where "High energy", the 3rd was at the end of a tour. You could see he during the 3rd concert that he was tired.

Thanks for your article.
Seventhmist from 7th HeavenI probably didn't need to mention it, but since no one else has said it, the "dup-dup-dup-dup-dup" after "Get it up or get you a job" was certainly a reference to the 1957 song "Get a Job."
Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn July 6th 1980, "I'm Alright" by Kenny Loggins entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart at position #88; and on October 5th, 1980 it peaked at #7 (for 2 weeks) and spent 22 weeks on the Top 100...
It reached #5 on the Canadian RPM Top Singles chart...
The movie 'Caddyshack' opened in theaters across the U.S.A. and Canada on July 25th, 1980 and was #3 on the list of the Top 100 Movies of 1980* (#1 was 'The Shining' and #2 was 'Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back')...
* http://www.imdb.com/
Esskayess from Dallas, TxMoney showed a considerable lack of class with those remarks.
Paul from St. Petersburg, FlIs it just me, or does that bass line sound awfully close to Tusk from Fleetwood Mac, released just a year prior...?
Sara from Silver Spring, MdDann Huff played guitar on "Nobody's Fool" not "I'm Alright".
Dodge from Casper, WyKenny isn't a hard guitar player - he loves the feel of jazz and smooth acoustic. The electric guitarist on this hit is studio expert and Giant frontman, Dann Huff. Huff steps in whenever an artist with CBS/Sony needs a little muscle in their single or album track, regardless of genre. Other songs of the hundreds he has successfully contributed to include Celine Dion - My Heart Will Go On, Michael Jackson - Man In The Mirror, and Clay Walker - Hypnotize the Moon.
Sara from Silver Spring, MdThe voice in the background is Eddie Money.
Sara from Silver Spring, MdAlso this could be a song about golf. if there is a category on this site for songs about sports.
Sara from Silver Spring, MdThe song was actually partly inspired by Michael O'Keefe's character in the movie Danny ("Be the ball!")
Sara from Silver Spring, MdThis was sung a few days ago by Crosby Loggins who is Kenny's oldest son on the Rock the Cradle reality show where the offspring of pop stars (who are that that well known) go into the spotlight. Go Crosby!
Oh and the backing vocals are by Eddie Money!
Sara from Silver Spring, MdThe song has nothing to do with Kenny Loggins life! Get real. I have a stuffed gopher that sings and dances to I'm All Right
Ken from Louisville, KyNot surprisingly, Tiger Woods says that Caddyshack is his favorite all-time movie.
Sara from Silver Spring, MdThis wasn't the first time Loggins wrote a song for a film. Little known fact he wrote "I Believe in Love" for Streisand to sing in A Star is Born
(along with the Bergmans) He later cut his own version on his Celebrate Me Home album.
Sara from Silver Spring, MdIn the online series Yacht Rock they do a fictious account of the making of this song. The
director Harold Ramis goes to Loggins and tells
him to write it and gets help from Journey's
Steve Perry (he later did "Don't Fight It" with
Loggins"
Sara from Silver Spring, MdI'm not sure that the 1974 incident is true, in the FOOTLOOSE documentry he says he wrote it at a
screening of the movie

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