Bertie Higgins of ‘Key Largo’ Fame Returns to Billboard’s Adult Contemporary Chart: ‘Write Every Day’
Categoria: Musica
After ruling the ranking in 1982, the singer-songwriter debuts with “A River.”
Por Billboard | 30/07/2026
Bertie Higgins was panicking the week of Nov. 21, 1981. He had every reason to celebrate: He was in his second week on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Key Largo,” which had debuted the week before at No. 86. Despite then rising to No. 82, it “lost the bullet,” Higgins, 82, remembers, chatting with Billboard from his home in Florida, around 30 miles north of Tampa. By week three, the song regained its bullet, reflecting its more significant gain, and the song was off and running (or, sailing) to a No. 8 peak for two weeks in April 1982. Dread had been replaced by dominance. “When it made it into the AC chart” — where it led for three weeks — “that was a great time in my life,” Higgins says. Related The Deals: Stingray’s $175M TuneIn Play; ‘Key Largo’ Singer Sells Catalog to Reservoir ‘Bogie and Bacall’ Song Sales Up 625% After Lauren Bacall’s Death The Yacht Rock Joke Is Getting Old: Critic’s Take On the latest Billboard Adult Contemporary chart (dated Aug. 1, 2026), the singer-songwriter debuts with his new single “A River” at No. 29 — his first time on the ranking in more than 42 years. After “Key Largo,” he charted with “Just Another Day in Paradise,” which reached No. 10 in June 1982, and “When You Fall in Love,” a No. 34 hit in January 1984. After years of productive writing, recording and touring globally, Higgins marvels at his longevity, appearing on a chart that has recently included four Taylor Swift songs in the top 10. “To compete with that, that’s amazing,” he says. “God bless her.” Higgins cowrote “A River,” released on Toucan Cove, with Eddie Hedges and says that, as throughout his career, “My main thrust is my songwriting. ‘A River’ came from a unique spot, from the movie Lawrence of Arabia .” In the 1962 classic, the sheikh character played by Anthony Quinn says, per Higgins’ paraphrasing, “‘I’m a river to my people — everything I have goes to them.’ “As a songwriter, I’m tuned in to every street sign, things that people mumble about that I can barely understand, so I’ve got my brain out there for all this material,” Higgins says. “So I wrote ‘A River’ — ‘her love flows like a river into my heart’ — which I thought was a good idea. It’s amazing where you get your inspiration from.” Higgins feels that the parallels of “A River” and “Key Largo,” which takes it title from the 1948 film of the same name starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, as shouted out in its earworm chorus, are owed in part to his love of “those older movies.” Plus, “My wife and I used to go down to the Florida Keys a lot. I’m a Florida boy. I’m from Tampa Bay in a little fishing village called Tarpon Springs. I was a sponge diver for a while. That was a great eye-opening, difficult gig. Good lord, those guys worked hard. I’ve seen everything you can see in the salt water out here in the gulf. My father taught me all about fishing.” Further sparking his signature hit, which Higgins cowrote with Sonny Limbo