June 13, 2025 —– Chart #302
Hello Music Friends,
Hey folks, welcome to another edition of Chart of the Week. This week we’re trading in distortion pedals and pyrotechnics for something a little softer, a little sweeter — and a whole lot more nostalgic. Grab your acoustic guitar and maybe a honey pot or two, because we’re heading down to the “House at Pooh Corner” with Loggins & Messina.
If you’ve ever wanted to cry into your flannel shirt while hugging a stuffed bear, this is your song.
Written by a young Kenny Loggins — and I mean young, as in teenager, still figuring out how to shave young — “House at Pooh Corner” is a gentle, thoughtful tune inspired by A.A. Milne’s beloved Winnie-the-Pooh stories. Loggins wrote it while still in college, long before he was danger-zoning his way into ‘80s soundtrack immortality. The lyrics capture that bittersweet moment when childhood starts to fade in the rearview mirror, and suddenly Pooh and Christopher Robin aren’t just storybook pals — they’re metaphors for growing up and saying goodbye.
Now here’s where it gets good: Loggins initially recorded the song with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band for their 1970 album Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy — a sentence that’s so perfectly ‘70s I can smell the patchouli. But the version we all know and love came a bit later, after Kenny teamed up with the master of musical production jiu-jitsu himself: Jim Messina.
Let’s talk about Loggins & Messina, a duo that was kind of a happy accident. Messina had already logged time with Buffalo Springfield and co-founded Poco, which made him part of that elite club of guys who basically invented country rock while wearing denim on denim. Columbia Records initially brought him in to produce Loggins’ solo debut. But the chemistry was too good, and before you could say “soft rock superduo,” it was Loggins & Messina, not just “produced by.”
“House at Pooh Corner” appeared on their 1971 debut album Sittin’ In, a record that balanced gentle folk-pop like this tune with groovier, more jam-oriented material. On this track, Loggins delivers the vocal like a guy who just reread his childhood copy of The Tao of Pooh and immediately picked up a guitar. Messina adds the perfect touch with soft harmonies, tasteful lead work, and that subtle production polish that makes the whole thing feel like a memory rather than a recording.
It’s a song that somehow makes you want to run barefoot through a meadow and also call your mom. And let’s be honest — if you ever had a stuffed animal with a name, this song will punch you right in the feelings.
Loggins later re-recorded the song in the ‘90s as “Return to Pooh Corner”, adding a third verse and just enough grown-up melancholy to make it a lullaby for former children (i.e., all of us). But it’s that original version with Messina — two young artists sitting in, harmonizing, and gently breaking our hearts — that still hits the hardest.
So this week, dust off your inner child, pour a little tea, and head back to the Hundred Acre Wood — where the pace is slower, the friends are forever, and the songs sound like home.
Keep Rockin’,
Stan Bradshaw