I’ve been writing this blog for more than two years now, posting almost three hundred stories. As I often tell people, “You should check out my blog! It’s read by literally TENS of people!” Well, actually some of the stories are read by a few hundred, and others have been seen by a few thousand. Admittedly, I sometimes wonder, “Is it worth the trouble? These things I write: do they really touch people in any way?”
Then, I get a message like the one you’re about to read. I wrote the story below about the classic top-40 summer hit “Moonlight Feels Right” last summer. A year later, Murray West sent this comment:
There’s a tradition in our family regarding “moon songs.” My parents had shared a love of “Blue Moon,” and when my dad passed away, my mom would hear that song and tell me that she felt my dads presence. I laughed it off as a funny story, and one day I was on a long road trip driving at 2 am and thinking of my dad. I said out loud “Dad, if you and I were to have a moon song it would be; “Moonlight Feels Right.” I drove on and 10 minutes later “Moonlight Feels Right” came on the radio. To my dying day I will think my Dad reached out to me through the airwaves to say hello.
I’m glad my story brought back a great memory for you, Murray. Thanks for sharing. This is why I keep writing my stories.
In case you missed it the first time, here’s my tribute to “Moonlight Feels Right,” the man who brought it to life, and the woman who inspired the song:
“The wind blew some luck in my direction….I caught it in my hands today…”
I always turn up the volume when “Moonlight Feels Right” comes on the radio.
“I finally made a tricky French connection…you winked and gave me your okay…”
It was a major hit in the summer of 1976. In the thirty-nine years since, I’ve heard it thousands of times. Somehow, to this day, from the very first note, it makes me smile. Even in the cold of winter. But “Moonlight Feels Right” is a summer song, no doubt about that. It conjures up images of long days, warm nights and suntan lotion (that’s what we used back then, we didn’t know any better).
“We’ll lay back and observe the constellations…and watch the moon smiling bright…”
Who writes a song like this? Who plays that amazing marimba solo? The group is/was Starbuck. Why does this one Southern song, endure almost forty years after it was recorded? I began my search for the answers.
Bruce Blackman is the man behind the song, the keyboard and the mustache. The Greenville, Mississippi native also formed the band, produced the record, and owns most of the publishing rights. All these decades later, in the summer of 2015 and now based in Atlanta, he tells me, “I am one of the luckiest people alive. That one song has made me a comfortable living, and I still love it today.”
“You say you came to Baltimore from Ole Miss….class of ’74 gold ring…the eastern moon looks ready for a wet kiss…to make the tide rise again…”
I’ve always heard the best songs are the result of one’s life experience, and in Bruce’s case, every word rings true, then and now. He said, “My inspiration for writing the song came from a beautiful girl from Greenville, Mississippi. I was playing poker in a dorm room at Delta State and noticed a newspaper photo hanging on the wall of young women in a beauty pageant. One of the girls was so beautiful I didn’t even believe it could be possible. I found out what college she was attending and I registered there for the sole purpose of trying to meet her. I did meet her and asked her out 3 times. The third time she accepted and that’s when “the wind blew some luck in my direction”.
Peggy and Bruce in 1977
He continued, “The song then became a light fictional fantasy about what I hoped would happen. We’re still married 47 years later, and she’s just as beautiful as ever.” The proof’s in the picture, with Bruce, Peggy, and their daughter Sarah, also a singer.
Bruce Blackman, daughter Sarah, and his wife Peggy, who inspired “Moonlight Feels Right”
The song was not originally intended to be a summertime staple. “We actually released it in late 1975,” Bruce said. “but nobody noticed.” By this time, Bruce had played in various bands, and released several records. He was in his late 20s, and had tasted a little success and a lot of failure. Radio deejays opened the “Moonlight” record envelope, saw an unfamiliar label and a no-name group, and put it in the giveaway stack. Linda Ronstadt, Elton John and dozens of disco groups were getting the airplay, so Bruce and band-mate Bo Wagner hit the road. “We went to every radio station that had a tower in the back yard, just asking them to take three minutes to listen to our song.” Occasionally they would find a believer. But in order to hit it big, it needed momentum, spreading from one town to the next, and the next. Weeks went by, then months, and there was no momentum.
“We’ll see the sun come up on Sunday morning…and watch it fade the moon away….”
Finally in the spring of 1976, the president of Private Stock received a fateful phone call. “This is Michael St. John from WERC in Birmingham,” the caller said. “You ought to get this Starbuck song out, because it is taking off. Our listeners want to know why they can’t find it in the stores.” This got the label’s attention. If they love it in Birmingham, they’d love it in Atlanta. And Nashville. And Charlotte. Suddenly, Bruce Blackman had a hit record on his hands. Not an overnight success by any measure, but the groundwork had been laid. Deejays and listeners were demanding it. St. John, now at Fun 92.7 in northeast Alabama told me, “That song literally heated up. The hotter it got outside, the more people wanted to hear it. It is truly a summertime hit.”
“I guess you know I’m giving you a warning….’cause me and moon are itchin’ to play….”
The record label woke up and ordered an album from the group, which was rushed into production. The rest is history.
All these years later, Bruce Blackman has no regrets. “People ask me if I resent being called a one-hit wonder. No sir, stop and think about it. Most singers can’t get a record deal, and if they do, they don’t score a hit. I’ve got this little song that has given me a great life. I heard it in Home Depot the other day. It’s fun to see people singing along to my song. I’ve never hollered out, ‘Hey that’s me!’ but I’m glad they like it.”
“I guarantee you, it’s on the radio somewhere in the world right now, it never stops,” Bruce said. “Every now and then someone will find out it’s my song, and they’ll tell me, ‘You’re responsible for my birth!’ I like taking credit for that!”
There are touching stories too. Bruce said, “Peggy and I went to our doctor recently. The doctor walked in the exam room and she was crying. It scared me because she had been in Peggy’s exam room for about 30 minutes and I thought she was about to give me some bad news. Instead, she told me this story:
“I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately. I’ve been in Maryland with my sister for several weeks. She had leukemia and I wanted to be at the hospital with her. About 15 minutes before she died she asked me if we could do something to make her feel good and she wanted me to sing Moonlight Feels Right with her since it was her favorite song. I held her hand and we sang the song and were still singing it when she passed away. I just want to thank you, Bruce, for helping my sister and how much it meant to both of us. She passed away with a smile on her face. Thank you for writing that beautiful song.” “I can’t even talk about that without crying,” Bruce said.
“I’ll take you on a trip beside the ocean….and drop the top on Chesapeake Bay….ain’t nothing like the sky to dose a potion….the moon’ll send you on your way…”
The original group reunited in the summer of 2013 for an outdoor show at Chastain Park in Atlanta, and it was as if time stood still.
There’s Bruce, looking and sounding great, and Bo Wagner doing that marimba solo flawlessly. (Sad update: Bo passed away in June 2017.)
“I’m still writing songs and producing for other artists,” Bruce said. “I’ve got to write songs, whether anybody hears them or not, it’s what I do.” And if “Moonlight Feels Right” turns out to be the song he’ll always be known for, that’s just fine according to Bruce. “I hope they put it on my tombstone,” he said. “That song has made a lot of people happy, I see it in their faces every time I sing it. For a songwriter, it doesn’t get any better than that.”
“Moonlight….feels right…..moonlight…..feels right…..”
I have said for years the only song I want to be played at my remeberence service is Tom Petty’s Wildflowers. I now believe it will be Moonlight feels Right and Wildflowers. 🙂
Me too?
uh oh got carried away and spelled remembrance wrong.
Classic David Carroll story….enjoyed very much. Keep on keepin’ on!
Bill
David, that was a wonderful story!! Starbuck is still one of my favorite groups. I saw them once when they came to Chattanooga, can’t remember the name of the place, it was a club or something like that. anyway, they absolutely blew me away! thank you so much for that memory! you’re so very talented! love reading your posts, articles, and stories!
Been loving your music for 40 years…!!!
There’s a tradition in our family regarding “moon songs.” My parents had shared a love of “Blue Moon,” and when my dad passed away, my mom would hear Blue Moon and tell me that she felt my dads presence. I laughed it off as a funny story, and one day I was on a long road trip driving at 2 am and thinking of my dad. I said out loud “Dad, if you and I were to have a moon song it would be; “Moonlight Feels Right.” I drove on and 10 minutes later “Moonlight Feels Right” came on the radio. To my dying day I will think my Dad reached out to me through the airwaves to say hello. 100% true story.
Murray West, sometimes I wonder if writing a blog is worth the time. Then I get a message like yours, and it motivates me to keep on writing. Thank you for sharing that with me. It means the world. David Carroll
I’m filled with warm fuzzies. Both versions are wonderful…..and ‘s Bruce’ah ha ha’ just makes it all the better.
Thank you for telling the wonderful stories behind the song.
No doubt Murray’s dad was reaching out to him that late night….and since. So right…..
Probably not many people know this but the British band Vanity Fare also recorded this great song … and it’s pretty good! I’m not saying it’s better than the Starbuck version but an excellent cover and certainly worth a listen.
Thank you for the wonderful article and recounting of the time you spent with Bruce Blackman. This song mirrors my life in the mid-1970’s, only the beaches were in Galveston, Texas instead of Chesapeake Bay. Warm summer nights, a bottle of wine and a blanket and a beautiful woman ~~ all under a full moon. Magic. Simply magic.
I’m also very happy to see that Bruce carefully saved the income from the song and it provided a good life for him and his family. Many artists don’t have this foresight.
Thank you again!
Wow, what a great story! Thanks.
Found this and loved the story and song. Brings me back to 15 and young love. No beach. Oklahoma. But still awesome
Thank you!
Paul
Can remember sailing on the Chesapeake Bay listening to this Great Song. Takes me back to young love and youth,thanks for the great trip!
I had just graduated from high school when Moonlight came out. I loved it then and still love it today. It gives you a summertime good feeling.
One of the greatest Moonlight songs of all time.
I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed this column, David. Thank you very much for providing the history and some heartwarming stories about my all-time favorite song. I found you, by the way, via a link recently posted on the Twitter feed of someone who, like me, had just started following the lead singer of Starbuck on Twitter. I first heard this song during a wonderful family vacation to Cape Cod in 1976 when I was in my teens, and every time I hear it now, it makes me smile. To your point about it being a summer song, I rarely listen to it anytime other than summer, and it’s the very first song on my summer bike-riding playlist. My kids have probably heard this hundreds of times, too, because I often play that bike playlist on the outdoor speakers when I work in the yard. They also know “Afternoon Delight” and some other 70s songs pretty well by now, too, but they know “Moonlight Feels Right” is special to their dad. I’d like to share another story, too. This past week was the anniversary of the passing of a friend who was very close to my wife and I, and like one of your readers above, I was looking for a sign that my friend knew I was thinking about her. Well, while I was listening to a classic American Top 40 from July, 1976 on iHeart Radio, Casey Kasem did a “shout out” to the new stations across the country carrying AT40 for the first time that week (remember how he used to do that?). The first one he mentioned was the station in my small town in northern Michigan! I listen to these classic AT40s quite often and haven’t heard my hometown mentioned for years. That was cool just by itself, but when the next song to come up on Casey’s countdown just happened to be my all-time favorite….”Moonlight Feels Right,” I took that as a sign from my friend, that yes, I know you’re thinking of me.
You know Bob, sometimes I wonder if writing these stories is a worthwhile endeavor. Then I see a post like yours, and realize: yes, it is. Thank you for sharing that, I really appreciate it. David
Keep on blogging, David. I decided to share a video of Moonlight Feels Right on my Facebook page, too, and tonight, one of the comments on it came from none other than Bruce Blackman. He answered a question I had posed to no one in particular about who the background singers were at a concert they performed at in Atlanta. Is that cool, or what?! Both he and Bo Wagner seem like real down-to-earth guys.
David, in case you haven’t heard the sad news yet, Bruce Blackman just posted on his Facebook page that Bo Wagner passed away this morning. As Bruce said, “Bo is gone, but his marimba solo in ‘Moonlight Feels Right’ will live on forever.” And it will always make me smile. RIP, Bo.
So sorry to hear that. I wish I could have met him. David Carroll
Everybody that went to Ole Miss knows this song and loves it. And sings out really loud when it gets to the line “you say you came to Baltimore from Ole Miss class of seven four” But we always thought the next line was “Go, Rebs” Too bad. Go, Rebs would make it even better.
There’s soooo little information out there on this song. You literally brought it to life with this piece. Terrific.
I had never heard this song until just now, listening online to Tony Blackburn’s soul show which was originally broadcast on BBC Radio London on New Year’s Eve. The song really jumped out at me, not least because the Class of 74 is my exact year group too. I loved it so much that I stopped the recording and had to move the slider back to play it all over again and then check out the lyrics online, where I found your blog. I love the story of the song, and all the other stories in the comments above.
Well David, thank you so much. It’s 5 AM and couldn’t sleep. I don’t know why I remember this song and something heavy upon my chest, maybe nostalgia for the times went by. Reading your article made feel better. Let me tell you that I am from Chile and this song was almost every day in the playlist of a TV show designed for young boys at the only state owned channel we could see back then. Of course we didn’t understand the lyrics at all, but was very famous especially for the marimba solo. So, it is great to now about the story of the song and, most of all, the impact in the life of so many people trough the years
Im from Los Angeles and i would listen to many 70s hits but this one tells a story in itself.. Love the storys and comment when they lay me to rest in My 63 Vw Bug this will be one if the songs played in my Remembrance
Wow, I remember this song. It came out when I finished High School. Always loved the part about dropping the top at Chesapeake Bay. Yep, as a Maryland native and the young love I sing along every time I hear it. Music is certainly a way to keep track of time, I oftentimes reference a song to figure out a period of time and this one just happened to coincide with my first love. I still think about that girl. Anyway, thanks for that story it was great to read about the origins of that iconic song in my life.
I first heard MFR after college, as I and my new wife drove down I 95 to the south in 1976, it was the perfect soundtrack.. Many many moons would come and go as I worked in a very bitter, hard, cruel and cold place in a northern city, following a hazardous career.. Occasionally I would hear MFR and would be transported back to a place of tranquil summer nights, soft breezes, a genteel innocent time, where the “moonlight feels right”. I vowed to get us back there again. It took planning and determination. We have been southerners by choice for quite a while with a few generations added. What a wonderful creation MFR. BTW, how cool to read the lyrics re Ole Miss, which I visited on many pleasant occasions.. Yes happy to be down south, we never looked back.
Thanks David for the great back story. I just watched the Midnight Special performance and enjoyed the very unique summer sound of Starbuck. As a Delaware native and former Maryland resident, the Chesapeake Bay references are easy to visualize.
Just added “Moonlight Feels Right” to my “Bucket List of Songs to be Played When I Pass” (essentially, a compilation of music that has moved me in one way or another during my lifetime 🙂
Also just shared your article with my “Bucket List Buddy”, the only other person I’ve thus far met who maintains a similar list.
Thank you, David — your writing indeed spreads joy!
Ever since the first time I heard MFR, I have wondered who the girl was and if I might have known her. She would have been in the class ahead of me at Ole Miss. it’s 4:30 am, and I just awakened thinking about this song and decided to finally Google it! Peggy certainly was and still is a beauty – something for which Ole Miss is famous! ?. I’m so disappointed she doesn’t look at all familiar. I hear that song frequently on satellite radio, and it gives me a warm, nostalgic feeling every time. Thank you for he story and photos!
Peggy’s married to Bruce Blackman, the song’s author and singer of MFR. What a great tune!
I woke up this morning with the song on my mind. It came out the summer before my sophomore year in high school. And it hung around! I absolutely loved it then and by still absolutely love it now. It’s one of those songs that brings me back to a time when my future was wide open and bright. I am in love with the marimba solo, because I do love marimbas – – and I’m sure that I’m not the only one, along with a group Starbuck, who associates marimbas with moonlight (else, why would they have chosen marimbas for the solo?) Thank you for a timeless song that belongs to 2021 as much as it belonged to 1976.
David, thanks for this blog and what it brings to people like me that find this one of my all time favorites. Like many here that have responded, it reminds me of my high school youth and summer. I here this song on the radio and i always have to hit repeat at least twice. Just love it and it has meant so much to me. Thanks. Lonnie Creager
Wow, what a terrific story. “Who writes a song like this?” Indeed! The muse was shouting that day for Mr. Blackman. Those lyrics are inspired.
I’m 61 yo and I still remember the first time I heard Moonlight back when I was a kid. It grabbed me and held on tight. This is one of those songs that stayed with me all these years. Another is Year of the Cat (I love Al Stewart). Whenever these songs come on, wherever I am, I stop what I’m doing and relish the moments.
I turned 13 in the summer of ’76. This song, Afternoon Delight, and the Frampton Comes Alive album singles all take me back to those two weeks of summer vacation at North Myrtle Beach whenever I hear them.
To finally see the inspiration for this magical song has made the entire experience even more cosmic. It has been my all time favourite song since I first heard it upon its release here in Scotland in the early 1970s and I’m so overwhelmed to see how many guys appreciate the pure sheer beauty of it.
I was having lunch with my wife in the Kisch-in cafe in Chicago 5 years ago and MFR came on the cafe’s playlist. Out of nowhere I felt this sense of happiness and nostalgia. I actually teared up. It was years since hearing it and something triggered that I can’t explain. I was 22 and a senior at Penn State when MFR was a hit. Something in my life back then must have been profound. An ex-love maybe? I can’t remember what but this song triggers a surprising emotion. I still to this day get that euphoric reaction from the song. I have always been a jazz aficionado and the marimba solo knocked me out. But yhe rhythm, lyrics, and vocals combine to be the perfect feel good song for me.
Thank you Bruce Blackman. If I ever need a lift MFR does it for me. If we ever meet I’m buying you a drink!
You guys played a gig in the little backwater town of Jackson Ga. in the building that was for the National Guard. This was in the mid 70’s. The first real band I ever saw. You guys got setup and sound checked and took a break. I gotta tell on myself, I did check out your Moog. Nothing malicious, just curiosity. I made sure I left it as I found it. For some reason the song just popped into my head and I did a little research and I’m glad I did.
Come to think about it, it may have been a prom but I can’t swear to that. I’m very glad you made a living doing what you love. I know several starving musicians with my roots being in Macon.
The joke being a musician piles three thousand dollars worth of gear into a thousand dollar car to drive to a gig that pays a hundred dollars.
Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. Plumbers union was my backup. Good thing too. ✌️❤️🎶
Wow I heard this song after a long long time & had to google the singer & lyrics & what a joy I got from the story behind the making & existence of this beautiful heart warming song by Starbuck. It brought tears to my eyes remembering my youthful happy years of the 70s. Wow!