"Moonlight Feels Right" is the debut single recorded by the American band Starbuck. Written and produced by Bruce Blackman, the song was released in December 1975 but did not chart until April 1976.

Background

On the ''

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'' radio program of August 14, 1976,

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reported the group's difficulties in promoting their single. Over the winter they had hand-delivered the record to 400 radio stations, 95 percent of which had told them they would play it, but did not. One of those stations, WERC in Birmingham, Alabama, told them that it sounded like a spring song to them, so they would play it but would wait until spring to do so. Discouraged, the group re-entered the recording studio. However, WERC kept their promise and became the first to do so, because "Moonlight Feels Right" became a hit immediately following its first airing. The song debuted on the U.S. charts the week ending April 17, 1976, with a chart run of over five months. Blackman detailed the story of the song in his 2018 book, ''The Road to Moonlight Feels Right - the story behind one of the most popular songs of the '70s''.

Marimba solo

The song features a prominent

marimba The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...

solo by co-founding band member Bo Wagner, who in the early 1970s worked as a studio musician in Los Angeles, appeared on ''

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'' for three years and toured with

The 5th Dimension The 5th Dimension is an American popular music vocal group, whose repertoire includes pop, R&B, soul, jazz, light opera, and Broadway. Formed as the Versatiles in late 1965, the group changed its name to "the 5th Dimension" by 1966. Betwee ...

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and

Liberace Władziu Valentino Liberace (May 16, 1919 – February 4, 1987) was an American pianist, singer, and actor. A child prodigy born in Wisconsin to parents of Italian and Polish origin, he enjoyed a career spanning four decades of concerts, recordi ...

. Wagner claimed the performance that ended up on the record was his first attempt, really just a rehearsal. But everyone seems to have realized they wouldn’t get it any better. Wagner went on to set up a performing arts school and taught music and dance. He then shifted careers into health care for the entertainment industry, where he established himself over the course of thirty years as “Dr Bo”. At a 2013 revival performance in

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, Atlanta he used an electronic instrument (a MalletKAT Pro). Wagner died on June 20, 2017 in Santa Monica, California, aged 72.

Television performances

Starbuck performed "Moonlight Feels Right" on '' The Midnight Special'' television program on July 23, 1976 (season 4, episode 37). The show was hosted by The Spinners. They also performed it on ''

American Bandstand ''American Bandstand'', abbreviated ''AB'', is an American music-performance and dance television program that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989, and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as the pro ...

'' with

Dick Clark Richard Wagstaff Clark (November 30, 1929April 18, 2012) was an American radio and television personality, television producer and film actor, as well as a cultural icon who remains best known for hosting ''American Bandstand'' from 1956 to 198 ...

on August 28, 1976.

Chart performance

"Moonlight Feels Right" was a major American hit, reaching number three on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, number two on the ''Cash Box'' chart, and number four on ''

Record World ''Record World'' magazine was one of the three main music industry trade magazines in the United States, along with '' Billboard'' and '' Cashbox''. It was founded in 1946 under the name ''Music Vendor'', but in 1964 it was changed to ''Record Wo ...

''. It is ranked as the 34th biggest US hit of the year. On the Canadian chart, the song peaked at number three in early August 1976. It is ranked as the 51st biggest Canadian hit of 1976.

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

External links

Lyrics of this song
* {{authority control 1975 songs 1976 debut singles Starbuck (band) songs American soft rock songs Private Stock Records singles