"Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" and other romantic songs

I'm in Huntsville, Alabama for work where there seems to be a pretty limited selection of radio stations and content on the FM dial. The upside is that I hear a lot of old songs on the radio that I heard and liked when I was a kid. Sometimes I'll hear one of these songs, such as "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)," by one-hit wonder Rupert Holmes. Today I heard it in the car and I sat and waited for it to finish after I'd parked. I could hear all the lyrics. For the first time I "got" the song. It bears a message of irony, love and recognition, and is a catchy tune.

Escape (The Piña Colada Song)

I was tired of my lady --
We'd been together too long;
Like a worn-out recording
Of a favorite song.
So while she lay there sleeping,
I read the paper in bed.
And in the personal columns
There was this letter I read:

"If you like Piña Coladas
And getting caught in the rain,
If you're not into yoga,
If you have half a brain,
If you'd like making love at midnight,
In the dunes on the Cape,
Then I'm the love that you've looked for
Write to me and escape."

So here's the protagonist of the song talking about being bored with his mate - maybe he's been married a few years or something - and out of boredom he stumbles across a personal ad in the paper that catches his interest. Everyone can relate to this, right? But then he goes on to act on his curiosity, admitting at the outset to his awareness of the morally dubious nature of his step toward infidelity:

I didn't think about my lady -
I know that sounds kind of mean -
But me and my old lady
Had fallen into the same old dull routine.
So I wrote to the paper,
Took out a personal ad,
And though I'm nobody's poet
I thought it wasn't half bad:

"Yes I like Piña Coladas,
And getting caught in the rain.
I'm not much into health food,
I am into champagne.
I've got to meet you by tomorrow noon
And cut through all this red-tape
At a bar called O'Malley's,
Where we'll plan our escape."

The protagonist seizes the moment and seeks to resolve his relationship issues the way so many of us have, by starting a new relationship. He puts pen to paper and writes his own ad. Then he follows through, throwing himself into the unknown to meet someone sight unseen. The song elides any of the usual complications and realities involved in dating through personals, blind dates with no introduction or prior interaction on the phone or even a picture, etc., but we allow the unrealities for the sake of entertainment and cutting to the chase - we want to know how will this turn out?

So I waited with high hopes
And she walked in the place
I knew her smile in an instant
I knew the curve of her face
It was my own lovely lady
And she said, "Oh it's you."
Then we laughed for a moment
And I said, "I never knew:"

"That you like Piña Coladas,
Getting caught in the rain,
And the feel of the ocean,
And the taste of champagne.
If you'd like making love at midnight
In the dunes of the Cape,
You're the lady I've looked for.
Come with me and escape."

The woman in the personals ad turns out to be the very mate he was bored with. Turns out she felt the same way. They learn something about each other and reunite afresh. Like most so-called "love songs" there's an edge of suffering, expressed here as boredom and attempted infidelity, underlying the joy and romantic feeling.