Starbuck was a rock band formed in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, Georgia, in 1974 by keyboardist/vocalist/record producer Bruce Blackman and

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 ...

player Bo Wagner. Both Blackman and Wagner, along with guitarist Johnny Walker, had previous success with Mississippi-based "sunshine pop" group

Eternity's Children Eternity's Children was an American sunshine pop band that originated in Cleveland, Mississippi as a folk group known as the Phantoms. The Phantoms began with two students, composed of vocalist/keyboardist Bruce Blackman and drummer Roy Whittake ...

, scoring a ''Billboard'' Hot 100 hit with "Mrs. Bluebird" in the summer of 1968. Wagner worked as a studio musician in Los Angeles in the early 1970s, appeared on

The Lawrence Welk Show ''The Lawrence Welk Show'' is an American televised musical variety show hosted by big band leader Lawrence Welk. The series aired locally in Los Angeles for four years, from 1951 to 1955, then nationally for another 16 years on ABC from 195 ...

, and played drums for the extravagant pianist

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 ...

. Starbuck's debut single, "

Moonlight Feels Right "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 '' American Top 40'' radio p ...

", reached the No. 3 position on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 singles

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabul ...

in 1976. Although the band never re-created the success of their debut, several of their songs did chart in the Billboard Top 100, and their 1977 release "Everybody Be Dancin'" reached No. 38. From 1976 to 1980, the band toured with popular groups of the era, including

Electric Light Orchestra The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1970 by songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood with drummer Bev Bevan. Their music is characterised by a fusion of pop, classical a ...

KC and the Sunshine Band KC and the Sunshine Band is an American disco and funk band that was founded in 1973 in Hialeah, Florida. Their best-known songs include the hits "That's the Way (I Like It)", "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty", "I'm Your Boogie Man", "K ...

Hall & Oates Daryl Hall and John Oates, commonly known as Hall & Oates, are an American pop rock duo formed in Philadelphia in 1970. Daryl Hall is generally the lead vocalist; John Oates primarily plays electric guitar and provides backing vocals. The two ...

England Dan & John Ford Coley England Dan & John Ford Coley were an American soft rock duo composed of Dan Seals, Danny Wayland "England Dan" Seals and John Ford Coley, John Edward "John Ford" Coley, active throughout the 1970s. Native Texas, Texans, they are best known for t ...

and

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. TV appearances included '' The Midnight Special'', ''

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 ...

'', ''

The Merv Griffin Show ''The Merv Griffin Show'' is an American television talk show starring Merv Griffin. The series ran from October 1, 1962 to March 29, 1963 on NBC, May 10, 1965 to July 4, 1969 in first-run syndication, from August 18, 1969 to February 11, 1972 a ...

'', ''

Dinah! ''Dinah!'' is a daytime variety talk show that was hosted by singer and actress Dinah Shore. The series was distributed by 20th Century Fox Television and premiered on October 21, 1974, in syndication. In 1979, the show became known as ''Dinah ...

'', ''

The Mike Douglas Show ''The Mike Douglas Show'' was an American daytime television talk show that was hosted by Mike Douglas. It began as a local program in Cleveland before being carried on other stations owned by Westinghouse Broadcasting. The show went into nati ...

'', and '' Solid Gold''. The band was briefly known as Korona in the early 1980s, getting one Hot 100 hit in 1980, "Let Me Be," which reached No. 43 in April. In July 2013, a number of former Starbuck members (founders Blackman and Wagner, guitarist Tommy Strain, keyboardists Sloan Hayes and David Shaver, bassist Jimmy Cobb, and drummer Kenny Crysler) performed at Chastain Park in Atlanta. The group also reunited once more for their final performance on August 20, 2016, with the same lineup as their previous reunion concert in 2013. In 2022 12 new songs were released by Bruce Blackman on the album ''Starbuck 2022". Blackman was inducted into the Mississippi Writer's Garden on April 5, 2014. He detailed the story of Starbuck in his 2018 book, ''The Road to Moonlight Feels Right - the story behind one of the most popular songs of the '70s''. Robert "Bo" 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, using the name "Dr Bo". He died on June 20, 2017, in Santa Monica, California, aged 72.

Discography

Albums

Singles

References

External links

Moonlight Feels Right
(Bruce Blackman's official Starbuck site) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Starbuck (Band) Musical groups established in 1974 Musical groups disestablished in 1980 Musical groups from Georgia (U.S. state) United Artists Records artists Musical groups from Atlanta Private Stock Records artists