Kenny Loggins

Long before he wrote songs for movies about an elite school of U.S. Naval Avation cadets, country club golfing hijinks or small towns that outlawed teenage dancing, Kenny Loggins was a full-blown country rocker. In fact, in the 1970s he wrote songs for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. These twangy ditties caught the ear of Poco's Jim Messina, and the two formed Loggins & Messina. They cranked out a few country-tinged soft rock albums before disbanding in 1976, leaving Loggins to a life of writing and recording songs for movies and his solo albums (which are admirable works in their own right).