Rupert Holmes

Artist: Rupert Holmes

LP: Partners In Crime

Song: "Answering Machine"

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This third single from Rupert Holmes' 1979 "Partners In Crime" LP reached #32 on the Billboard singles charts back in 1980, after the wildly popular chart-topper "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)," for which Holmes is probably best remembered, and the follow-up single "Him," which made it to #6. Born in England in 1947 to an American father and a British mother, Rupert's family moved to New York when he was just a tot. After studying clarinet, doing some session work and writing songs for many popular singers of the day, Holmes began recording his own songs and then went on to do all sorts of neat things, as you can see here. I've always liked songs where you can hear someone dialing a telephone, and then I like the song even better if the caller gets an answering machine and has to sing the message they're leaving for their lover... and of course I like the song best of all if the machine cuts them off just as they're about to say something really important!