Remembering Dave Loggins and “Please Come to Boston” (RIP)

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There are some songs that when the last phrase is written and the period is dotted at the end, they immediately become timeless and genre-less due to how expertly they encapsulate a human experience.

For 50 years, “Please Come To Boston” by Dave Loggins has been one of those songs. Written by Loggins himself, it became an easy listening/soft rock #1 hit for him back in 1974, and the song that would go on to define his career. But the country world saw that “Please Come To Boston” was a country song at its heart, and that’s where it would ultimately become a standard.

When both Joan Baez and David Allan Coe released their own version of the song in 1976, it spoke to its far reaching resonance. Coe’s version is where it was arguably most popularized in country. Jimmy Buffett, Willie Nelson, Glen Campbell, Tammy Wynette, B.W. Stevenson, Lee Hazlewood, and later Reba McEntire, Confederate Railroad, Garth Brooks, Kenny Chesney, and Wade Bowen would all cover it as well.

On July 10th when Dave Loggins passed away at the age of 76 in Nashville, country traditionalists William Michael Morgan released his own version of the song on his Country Classics covers album. 50 years into the game, and country artists are still enamored with “Please Come To Boston.”

Dave Loggins wrote the song while touring with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. No wonder it comes with a country music heart. The tour included stops in Boston, as well as Denver and Los Angeles that are also mentioned in the song. According to Loggins, everything about the song was true, except the girl calling her ramblin’ boy home. He didn’t have a love interest at the time.

It’s not only country artists that found appreciation for the song. It was also recorded by Babyface, Tori Amos, and others from across the pop, rock, and R&B world.

“Please Come To Boston” is clearly the most recognizable song from the Dave Loggins catalog, but some in the sports world may disagree. His instrumental “Augusta,” has been used as the music behind the annual Masters Golf Tournament in Georgia since 1981. It’s almost as iconic as the tournament itself, and is one of those movements of music that evokes a deep feeling every time you hear it, like you’re immediately transported to Augusta National’s immaculate greens.

Though “Please Come To Boston” and “Augusta” both rose to become cultural institutions, these are not the only contributions from Loggins. After “Please Come To Boston” was so embraced by country, Loggins became an accomplished and revered songwriter. He wrote the #1 song “Morning Desire” recorded by Kenny Rodgers, and Juice Newton’s #1 “You Make Me Want To Make You Mine.” He also wrote songs for Don Williams, Crystal Gayle, Wynonna Judd, Restless Heart, Alabama, Billy Ray Cyrus, and others.

Dave Loggins seemed to prefer the lesser profile of a songwriter than someone out there performing on a nightly basis. But in 1984, he won the CMA Award for Vocal Duo of the Year with Anne Murray for the #1 song “Nobody Loves Me Like You Do.”

For all of his accomplishments, Dave Loggins was later named to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1995. Even though at that time, multiple Loggins songs were still regularly being recorded in the country realm, Loggins had long retired. In about 1985—less than a decade after “Please Come To Boston” was first recorded—Loggins mostly stepped away from music, meaning sometimes his legacy and impact isn’t quite measured accurately since Loggins was not out there singing his own praises.

But clearly, time has proven his work invaluable, from “Please Come To Boston” and beyond.

Born on November 10, 1947 in Mountain City, Tennessee, Dave Loggins worked as an insurance salesman and did technical drawings before deciding to pursue music. He was also the cousin of well-known singer/songwriter Kenny Loggins.

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