Loverboy’s “This Could be the Night”: A high-school dance memory

It was one of those things that only happens in the teen angst soaked days of high school, when we were finding our self-confidence, and really discovering who we were and what we wanted to be.

One of the rites of passage was the high school dance, and every time I hear “This Could be the Night” by Loverboy, I am taken back to a dance near the end of Grade 11, where I had developed a serious crush, and I befriended someone who had done the same.

Mutual aid
It was second semester of Grade 11, and I was finding my stride in high school. I had good friends, and we started to venture into Lethbridge to play racquetball at the YMCA and eat pizza afterwards. We also began to notice girls.

I took Biology 20, and was paired in the front row on a lab bench with a friend I will call Raoul. That class together, not only cemented our friendship, but also revealed we had something in common. We both liked girls in our class – and they were friends.

One day, we decided we would help each other any way we could to “get the girl.”

Dance desire
We began to trade little bits of information, because there was something free and liberating about talking to a girl I had no interest in, and no desire to pursue. Raoul felt the same.

Finally, we had our chance when the last school dance of our Grade 11 year, in the fall of 1986, took place in the gym at Kate Andrews High School in Coaldale.

For much of the dance, it appeared as if all our effort would be for naught. The girls were nowhere to be found. They went to the same church and, as it turned out, they had gone to a church activity that cut into dance time.

Then they arrived. I had almost given up hope completely, which was fine because I was still having a good time, and had gone to the bathroom. Upon my return, I could see Raoul had a different air about him.

The girls had arrived.

I joined him at our table, and he said he was going to ask out his crush. I was way too terrified.

Raoul was just waiting for the right song.

Then, suddenly, my crush started walking towards me. I was sitting by the door, and I thought she may be on her way to the bathroom.

She stopped in front of me and paused.

“Do you have a quarter?” she asked.

“Ya,” I replied, fishing into my pocket which was littered with change.

“Good,” she responded. “I need to call my boyfriend.”

Crushing.

While I kind of reeled from that shock, I noticed the music had slowed down.

Various couples in our class, and the other grades, had paired off to dance a slow dance. Some were kissing, some were just holding each other tightly, and some were just moving together awkwardly.

And, there in the corner of the dance floor was my good friend Raoul, dancing with “the girl”.

“This Could be the Night” was playing, as my friend moved to the music slowly with his dream girl.

The song
The song was one of Loverboy’s most successful singles in the United States. In March of 1986, the song went all the way to number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

Parting thoughts
Raoul never really did go out with that girl, although he pursued her through the rest of high school. To put it into context, he is now a successful pharmacist, married and with a beautiful baby girl the last time I checked.

However, at that time, in the spring of 1986, that was the centre of his universe, and our emotions rose and fell at the change of a song.

It’s funny how time provides perspective.