The yacht rock genre is so loosely defined that great arguments can be had about whether certain songs belong to it. But you’d find few to argue “Moonlight Feels Right,” the 1976 hit by Starbuck, isn’t a perfect fit.
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This song is so suited for yacht rock season the DJ that helped break it big held it back until warmer weather hit. Here is the unlikely story of the song, the band, and of course, those marimbas.
Writing the Song and Getting the Girl
“Moonlight Feels Right” not only reflected the most lasting musical achievement of Starbuck’s Bruce Blackman, but it also retold his real-life love story. The Mississippi native had knocked around with different bands in the late ’60s and early ’70s with some success here and there before he started up Starbuck, so named after a character in the movie The Rain Maker.
The song talks about a moon-speckled romantic evening with a girl from Ole Miss, and the identity of the college is just about the only part of the song Blackman had to fabricate, as he told the website hottytoddy.com:
“She wasn’t actually from Ole Miss, but she was from Greenville, and she was going to school over in Moorhead (Mississippi Delta Community College). I went over there and saw her picture hanging on the wall in a dorm; she was in one of the beauty pageants. I said, ‘Who is that?’ They told me, and I went over to Moorhead and actually enrolled just so I could get the girl. The third time I asked her out, that’s when the wind was blowing in my direction. What sounded good was to make her from Ole Miss.”
The fun part of the story is Blackman not only dated that girl, but also ended up marrying her—a union that still exists today. Now it was just a matter of recording this soon-to-be classic and getting radio to play it.
Ay, Marimba
Marimba solos are generally what you can expect on the Muzak versions of hit songs, not the hits themselves. Yet Starbuck’s Bo Wagner took off on a memorable run on the instrument for the studio version of “Moonlight Feels Right,” a first take on which he couldn’t possibly improve.
Blackman and Wagner went on the road to various DJs trying to get them to play the song. This was in the winter of 1975. Just one station in Birmingham, Alabama, showed any interest, but the DJ in question told the pair the song didn’t sound right in the cold weather. When things warmed up, he promised he’d start to spin it.
Thinking they were getting the runaround, Starbuck went back to the drawing board of writing and recording new material. But that Birmingham DJ was as good as his word, and once the station started playing it, listeners demanded it at other stations. When Starbuck’s record company heard about this, they threw their weight behind the song and “Moonlight Feels Right” became a Top-5 sensation in the summer of 1976.
What is the Meaning of “Moonlight Feels Right”?
“Moonlight Feels Right” belongs to that long list of songs suggesting the moon possesses an almost mystical ability to affect romance. Ain’t nothing like the sky to dose a potion, Blackman sings. The moon will send you on your way.
Blackman has some fun with winking innuendo throughout the song: The eastern moon looks ready for a wet kiss / To make the tide rise again. He also suggests the celestial body isn’t the only thing that’s feeling a little frisky: ‘Cause me and moon are itching’ to play. Geographical details bring the song to life, but this is a tale that anyone who’s ever been under the moonlight with that special someone can appreciate.
Starbuck never came up with anything that hit at the level of “Moonlight Feels Right,” but what a one-shot it was. How can you deny what Bruce Blackman was espousing in the song, especially because he’s lived his own lifelong romance thanks to the magical powers of the wind and sky.
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