If you only know Rupert Holmes from “Escape (The Pina Colada Song),” you’re in for a particular treat. The reissue of these long out-of-print treasures might be cause enough to celebrate, but to sweeten the deal, the label has added a number of rare and previously unreleased bonus tracks. This 3-CD collection, out today from Cherry Red Records, presents the first three albums created by the nonpareil musical storyteller and his collaborator and sonic wizard, producer-engineer Jeffrey Lesser, all of which pushed the boundaries of what was expected from pop music. His 1974 Epic Records debut, Widescreen, was filled with those songs that sound like movies, and now it’s about to be reissued as part of a box set appropriately entitled Songs That Sound Like Movies: The Complete Epic Recordings. In other words, there were no limits to Holmes’ finely crafted, elaborately realized pop dramas. With those words, Rupert Holmes welcomed listeners into his singular musical world – one in which the only limits were those of the singer-songwriter’s boundless imagination. There are songs that sound like movies/There are themes that fill the screen/There are lines I say that sound as if they’re written/There are looks I wear the theatre should have seen…
