Building off yesterday’s “Dancing in the Moonlight,” today’s classic moonlight-themed song of the day is “Moonlight Feels Right” by a band called Starbuck. No, they are not affiliated by the coffee chain, although if they formed a few years later no doubt they would have been sued for appropriating part of the name. “Moonlight Feels Right” was released in December 1975 but the single didn’t chart until April of 1976. It hit #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on both the Cash Box Top 100 and the Billboard Easy Listening charts.
“Moonlight Feels Right” stands out as one of the few examples of a hit single that features a marimba solo. The solo was played by Starbuck co-founder Bo Wagner, who was previously a studio musician in L.A., was in The Lawrence Welk Show orchestra, and toured with The 5th Dimension, Roger Williams, and Liberace. Apparently the solo you hear on the record was Wagner’s first pass, which is fairly amazing for such a technically difficult solo.
The other thing notable about “Moonlight Feels Right” is the genuinely icky phrase “The eastern moon looks ready for a wet kiss,” rhymed with “You say you came from Baltimore to Ole Miss.” That’s just an odd lyric, no matter how you look at it.
Bo Wagner and keyboard/vocalist/producer Bruce Blackman founded Starbuck in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1972. They had several other songs that cracked the Hot 100 but none as successful as “Moonlight Feels Right.” They broke up in 1980.
