"Meet Me Half Way" by Kenny Loggins

Song#:  3045
Date:  03/07/1987
Debut:  95
Peak:  11
Weeks:  25
Genre:  Pop, Soft Rock, Soundtrack



Pop Bits:  Loggins had previously worked with producer/songwriter Giorgio Moroder on two songs for the hit soundtrack to the film Top Gun. Both ended up being singles with "Danger Zone" cruising up to #2 and "Playing with the Boys" making it to #60. So when Moroder began writing songs with Tom Whitlock again for the soundtrack to the Sylvester Stallone sports drama flick Over the Top, it seemed logical to reach out to Loggins for another assist. He obliged and recorded this ballad. It would be released as a single a few weeks after the soundtrack's first single, Sammy Hagar's "Winner Takes It All" (#54), was issued out. While that rock track didn't make much headway on the Pop chart, Loggins' ballad slowly cut a path up until it finally peaked just outside the Top 10 at the dreaded #11 spot. It was his sixth song from a film to reach the Pop chart. The song did even better at AC where it got to #2.

ReduxReview:  I hadn't heard this song in ages. It's one of Loggins' hits that seems to have gotten lost over the years. It's a lovely song with a nice vocal performance from Loggins and was well-written by Moroder and Whitlock. The production was a bit stiff in an 80s kind of way, but it seemed to work okay at the time. The single was certainly a slow burner on the Pop chart. It debuted way low and really had a tough climb. It got to #11 in its fifteenth week, stayed there for one more week, then finally ran out of gas. Yet it stayed on the chart for another two months. It would have been an impressive run for any song, but especially for one that didn't make the Top 10. The tune was another worthy addition to Loggins' run of soundtrack hits.

ReduxRating:  7/10

Trivia:  This song remained Loggins' biggest hit on the AC chart (#2) for nearly ten years. He would finally top that chart later in 1996 with another film song. Loggins record "For the First Time" for the George Clooney/Michelle Pfeiffer rom-com One Fine Day. The song was serviced around to radio stations for airplay, but for whatever reason it was not made commercially available as a single. Consequently, even though it became a #1 AC hit, the song didn't make the Pop chart as chart rules dictated that in order to make the chart, the song had to be release commercially as a single. While that may not have seemed like a good decision, the upside was that if people wanted to own the track they had to buy the soundtrack album. It would do well reaching #52. The song, written by James Newton Howard, Jud Friedman, and Allan Rich, would later be nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song.

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