Bertie Higgins and the Band of Pirates

“We had it all, just like Bogie and Bacall Starring in our own late, late show Sailin’ away to Key Largo.” Few songwriters have been able to capture the wistful romanticism of Old Florida as well as Bertie Higgins. With his smash hit “Key Largo,” Bertie — a native of the Sunshine State — painted a picture of a couple in love, swaying in a breezy hammock while the sun set over yet another day in Paradise. “Here’s lookin’ at you, kid, missin’ all the things we did We can find it once again, I know Just like they did in Key Largo.” These days, he tours with the Pirate Band, spreading the gospel of the Caribbean good life and its love of lazy, hazy summer days under the Southern sun. Born in the western Florida city of Tarpon Springs, Higgins is of Portuguese, German and Irish descent — his great-great grandfather was the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the author of “Faust.” In his early years, Bertie was a Gulf of Mexico sponge diver — that’s what strapping young boys did in tiny Tarpon Springs, before synthetic sponges made the profession obsolete. Wearing a huge, round face mask (called a hookah), with an oxygen hose connected to the sponge boat above, the diver — with 60 pounds of lead weights tied to his waist — walked the sandy bottom in up to 70 feet of water, plucking up living sponges. But music, as it always will, won out, and once Bertie discovered rock ‘n’ roll, there was no turning back to the sponge trade. He was the drummer in the popular mid ’60s Florida band the Roemans, which backed pop singer Tommy Roe (“Sheila,” “Dizzy”) on tour packages that often included the Rolling Stones, Peter and Gordon and the Dave Clark Five. This led to a solo career, a massive bag of original songs, and — in 1982 — “Key Largo,” inspired by his then-wife and the misty feeling he got from watching old Bogart films. It’s a sweet imagery that’s served him well, too — the No. 1 karaoke song in the entire Pacific Rim, an area where karaoke is king, is Higgins’ song “Casablanca.” Like “Key Largo,” it sends an implicitly romantic message of love — something everyone can relate to — through daydreaming, movie-watching and moonily wishful thinking: “I fell in love with you watching Casablanca Back row of the drive-in show in the flickering light Popcorn and cokes beneath the stars became champagne and caviar Making love on a long hot summers’ night.”