Line #36 Music/BoyMeetsGirl


1	[[quoteright:321:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bmg_3870.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:321: Waiting for a star to fall, and carry your heart into my arms, that's where you belong, in my arms baby, yeah...]]
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4	Shannon Rubicam (born October 11, 1951) and George Merrill (born January 10, 1956) found most of their success behind the scenes as songwriters. After a relatively inauspicious debut album, Rubicam and Merrill received their first big break when a song they wrote for Music/JanetJackson found its way to [[Music/WhitneyHouston some obscure cousin of then-famous]] Music/DionneWarwick. "How Will I Know" exploded to the top of the charts, and a star was born. Fittingly, a sighting of a shooting star at one of Houston's concerts sent Rubicam scrambling for her notebook, writing the lyrics to a song she intended to be Houston's next smash.
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6	[[SignatureSong You may know this one.]]
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8	In the meantime, the couple went through a yearlong separation while working on their followup album, ''Reel Life''. Lyricist Rubicam turned loose many of their relationship issues as words in the many, many songs eventually culled down to the ten on the disc. Meanwhile, after Houston rejected "Waiting For A Star To Fall", studio heads, smelling a hit, passed it around to several artists including Music/BelindaCarlisle before Boy Meets Girl finally took back their song and took it to the top of the charts, peaking at #5 stateside and the very top throughout Europe. It continuously resurfaces on eighties collections and briefly found its way back into the pop cultural spotlight via a 2006 "sample war" involving three competing songs.
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10	Shannon and George patched up their relationship around the time of the release of ''Reel Life'' and married in the aftermath, [[ArtistDisillusionment semi-retiring]] as recording artists after [[ExecutiveMeddling the shelving]] of their 1990 followup album ''New Dream''. In 2000, they began work on their self-released comeback effort, ''The Wonderground'', but once again their personal issues found their way into their work as they worked their way to an amicable divorce. ''The Wonderground'' debuted to a warm reception as an Allmusic album pick, though a name change to BoyMeetsGirl Music (apparently to avoid being buried by dating sites in search results) did the band no favors in the name recognition department.
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12	Despite some recording, as of 2011 there are no plans for a new release.
13	----
14	!!Discography
15	* ''[[SelfTitledAlbum Boy Meets Girl]]'' (1984)
16	* ''Heartbreaker'' (1985, Japan-only single)
17	* ''Reel Life'' (1988)
18	* ''New Dream'' (1991)
19	* ''[[NewSoundAlbum The Wonderground]]'' (2003)
20	----
21	!!Tropes associated with the duo
22	* AntiLoveSong: Surprisingly upbeat example in "Bring Down The Moon", which urges "finding comfort in closing the distance between your life and your dreams" and finding "the spirit of romance" in day-to-day life when love falls short of expectations.
23	* ArtifactTitle: At 57 and 62 respectively, they're hardly a boy and a girl at this point.
24	* TheCameo:
25	** George and Shannon's daughter Hillary can be heard cooing near the end of "Oh Girl", the pair's first single
26	** Alongside the likes of Music/PhilCollins, Music/TheBeeGees and Hall & Oates on ''Reel Life'' producer Arif Mardin's [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "All My Friends Are Here"]]
27	* InDaClub: "Oh Girl" video, oddly for their genre, before degenerating into a bar brawl.
28	* LyricalDissonance: Much of ''Reel Life'' sketches out the pair's relationship issues (sometimes passive-aggressively, towards each other). The melodies themselves are quite upbeat.
29	* TheManBehindTheMan: The co-writers of Music/WhitneyHouston's #1 hits "How Will I Know" and "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)"
30	* MelismaticVocals: "Waiting For A Star To Fall" '''was''' written with Music/WhitneyHouston in mind.
31	* OtherCommonMusicVideoConcepts: "Waiting For A Star To Fall" as hybrid "Garage Rock" and "Band From Mundania"
32	* PepTalkSong: "Be True / Soul Connection", "The Aah Song", and "Climbing".
33	* ProtestSong: "Bird In Hand" is an environmental protest declaring that "progress hides a vengeful lie." [[AudienceAlienatingPremise This may have helped get the plug pulled on ''New Dream''.]]
34	* SillyLoveSongs: "Waiting for a Star to Fall" , on an album piled up with {{Breakup Song}}s, no less!
35	* WhatMightHaveBeen: "Waiting for a Star to Fall" was originally submitted to Music/WhitneyHouston, then bounced around to several potential singers before finding its way back to the original writers.

Context Music / BoyMeetsGirl