| Key Largo | |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Bertie Higgins |
| Album: | Just Another Day in Paradise |
| B-Side: | White Line Fever |
| Released: | September 1981 |
| Recorded: | 1981 |
| Genre: | Soft rock[1] |
| Length: | 3:20 3:05 (7") |
| Label: | Kat Family, Epic |
| Producer: | Sonny Limbo, Scott MacLellan |
| Next Title: | Just Another Day in Paradise |
| Next Year: | 1982 |
"Key Largo" is the debut single by Bertie Higgins, released in September 1981. It became, in early 1982, Higgins' only top 40 hit in the United States, peaking at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The track spent 17 weeks in the top 40 and was certified gold by the RIAA.[2] In addition, "Key Largo" topped the Adult Contemporary chart for two weeks.[3] In the United Kingdom, it reached No. 60 on the UK Singles Chart.
The song's lyrics plead with a lover to reconsider ending a romance the singer compares to that depicted by Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, the stars of the 1948 namesake film. 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. 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.
In 2009, VH1 ranked "Key Largo" #75 on its program 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 80s.
A promotional music video was produced in 1982, filmed in and around Tarpon Springs, Florida and directed by David Jean Schweitzer. It 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.[4] The scene then cuts to the pair riding in a motorboat around Anclote Key, off Tarpon Springs. The video also shows them in a car on Fred Howard Park. The final moments depict the two walking along a beach at sunset.
| Chart (1981–82) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia (Kent Music Report)[5] | 2 |
| Canadian RPM Top Singles | 3 |
| Canadian RPM Adult Contemporary Tracks | 1 |
| New Zealand Singles Chart | 8 |
| South Africa (Springbok)[6] | 18 |
| UK Singles Chart[7] | 60 |
| US Billboard Adult Contemporary Tracks | 1 |
| US Billboard Hot Country Singles | 50 |
| US Billboard Hot 100 | 8 |
| US Cash Box Top 100[8] | 7 |
| Chart (1982) | Rank |
|---|---|
| Australia (Kent Music Report)[9] [10] | 5 |
| Canada RPM Top Singles [11] | 29 |
| US Billboard Hot 100[12] | 17 |
| US Cash Box [13] | 41 |
