#MusicMonday – August 24, 2020

I hear your name whispered on the wind, it’s a sound that makes Music Monday cry…

I hope you don’t cry over listening to songs featured on Music Monday, but if you do, may they be happy tears.

I love a song that makes me feel good, that gives me goosebumps, and depicts a wonderful life. I mean, we’re not all going to do the things we see in music videos, but here’s to hoping that the images make you feel good.

Today’s song captures all of those feelings for me – feel good, goosebumps, and reminds me of falling in love and the happiness that has given me in my life. I wouldn’t trade that – or today’s song – for anything!

“Waiting for a Star to Fall” is a 1988 single by Seattle-based husband and wife duo Boy Meets Girl, from their 1988 album Reel Life.

Boy Meets Girl is George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam. and they’ve written songs for the likes of the late Whitney Houston, as well as Deniece Williams, Dolly Parton, and Smokey Robinson. The duo were also singers – performing backup on Deniece Williams’ “Let’s Hear for the Boy.”

The inspiration for “Waiting for a Star to Fall” was Rubicam spotting a falling star during a Whitney Houston concert at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. The two had success as songwriters, but until that point, they hadn’t had a mainstream hit to call their own in the vocal department. The duo wrote the song, originally intending for Whitney Houston to sing it (her producer at the time, Clive Davis, rejected it) and Belinda Carlisle, who recorded it but ultimately didn’t like the song. So, throwing fate the wind after a previously unsuccessful album, Rubicam and Merrill recorded it…and found the beauty of love and a falling star to be a mainstream hit.

“Waiting for a Star to Fall” was released on June 10, 1988, and peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary Charts, as well as #12 on Billboard’s Year-End chart in 1989. The single was played under the closing credits for the 1990 movie Three Men and a Little Lady, and was released as a tie-in to the movie.

The music video, depicting Rubicam and Merrill on the running and playing on the beach and singing the song in a house is everything you want in a romance. The music video also features their daughter, Hilary, playing with bubbles.

If you like images of a beautiful love and life, coupled with the innocence of kids playing with giant bubbles, you will love this sentimental late 1980s music video!

The song proved to be a signature song for the duo, who never quite matched the success of this single. They’ve continued to write beautiful music for others, but like a falling star, they’ve never quite recaptured the magic for themselves as singers. Their third album, New Dream, was shelved in 1990 when their label was under reorganization. It was finally released in 2004 through their own label, but by then, something else had happened between the duo.

So, Boy Meets Girl…and then loses her. Shannon Rubicam and George Merrill divorced in 2000, but have continued their songwriting partnership to this day. They released their fourth album in 2003, and Rubicam even published her first novel, The Wonderground, in 2011. Man, I feel bad even talking about the downside of this, given how beautiful the music video and song are. I didn’t even know this information before I read about this duo, and…I feel bummed.

I’ve loved this song for many years. I first heard it at the end of Three Men and a Little Lady, but as I’ve gotten older, it has had much more meaning to me. Rather than it being just a beautiful song, it reminds me of why I fell in love with my husband and the incredible night the stars aligned, and one decided to fall to earth…the night we got engaged.

Seeing this music video, and seeing how much in love Shannon Rubicam and George Merrill clearly were, makes me hopeful that ours will be a love that lasts forever, even if theirs didn’t.

Although when I think of movie-style scenes of playing on the beach, we’re more like this…

Have a great Monday, and enjoy the music!