Music Friday: Chance Encounter Results in a Marriage Proposal in Brad Paisley's 'We Danced'

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you chart-topping songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, a chance after-hours encounter between a bar owner and a patron results in a marriage proposal in Brad Paisley's country hit "We Danced."

In the song written by Paisley and Charles Dubois, the narrator is a bar owner who is cleaning up after closing time. A woman, who had been in the bar earlier that evening, has returned to retrieve a misplaced purse. The two get lost in conversation, and the bar owner insists that the only way he'll return the purse he had found earlier is if she agrees to dance with him.

With the chairs up and the lights turned down, the coupled danced — and instantly fell in love.

Paisley sings, "And from that moment, there was never any doubt / I had found the one that I had always dreamed about / And then one evenin', when she stopped by after work / I pulled a diamond ring out of the pocket of my shirt."

In a fun twist, the woman says she'll marry him under one condition — that he agrees to dance with her.

"We Danced" was the fourth and final single from the 44-year-old singer-songwriter's wildly successful 1999 debut album Who Needs Pictures. The song went to #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and was nominated for Song of the Year at the Academy of Country Music Awards.

That album helped launch a stellar career that claimed 32 top-10 singles on the US Billboard Country Airplay chart, 19 of which have reached #1. Paisley has sold more than 12 million albums, won three Grammy Awards, 14 Academy of Country Music Awards, 14 Country Music Association Awards and two American Music Awards. At the age of 28, he became the youngest artist ever to be inducted into the Grand Ole Opry.

A West Virginia native, Bradley Douglas "Brad" Paisley was introduced to country music by his grandfather, Warren Jarvis, who gave the eight-year-old his first guitar, a Sears Danelectro Silvertone. Jarvis taught his grandson to play, and by the age of 10 Paisley was already performing at his church.

While in junior high, Paisley was doing a show at a local Rotary Club, when he was discovered by a program director for a Wheeling, West Virginia, radio station. He was invited to be a guest on the popular radio show "Wheeling Jamboree" and the rest is history.

Please check out the audio track of Paisley's "We Danced." The lyrics are below if you'd like to sing along...

"We Danced"
Written by Brad Paisley and Charles Dubois. Performed by Brad Paisley.

The bar was empty, I was sweeping up the floor
That's when she walked in, I said, "I'm sorry but we're closed"
And she said "I know but I'm afraid I left my purse"
I said, "I put one back behind the bar, I bet it's probably yours"

And the next thing that I knew
There we were, lost in conversation
And before I handed her her purse
I said, "You'll only get this back on one condition"

And we danced
Out there on that empty hardwood floor
The chairs up and the lights turned way down low
The music played, we held each other close
And we danced

And from that moment, there was never any doubt
I had found the one that I had always dreamed about
And then one evenin', when she stopped by after work
I pulled a diamond ring out of the pocket of my shirt

And as her eyes filled up with tears
She said, "This is the last thing I expected"
And then she took me by the hand
And said, "I'll only marry you on one condition"

And we danced
Out there on that empty hardwood floor
The chairs up and the lights turned way down low
The music played, we held each other close

And we danced
Like no one else had ever danced before
I can't explain what happened on that floor
But the music played, we held each other close
And we danced, yeah, we danced

Credit: Photo by minds-eye (Brad Paisley) [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

Recycling Center's Jewelry Recovery Story Has a Familiar Ring to It

For the second time in two months, workers at the Town of Babylon Recycling Center on Long Island have defied all odds by turning up treasured diamond rings among tons of stinky garbage.

West Babylon resident Vicky Salzone had accidentally tossed three diamond bands into a trash bag while sorting through old Christmas decorations. By the next morning, she and her husband of 34 years, Joe, realized the irreplaceable rings were gone and that they were probably on the way to the sanitation burn plant.

“When I heard the garbage trucks outside I had this feeling that I should stop them because something is wrong," Joe told Newsday. "I called the town and said, ‘I think my wife’s rings are in the garbage.’”

His Friday the 13th request was referred to the Town of Babylon Recycling Center, where managers Ed Wiggins and John Bonavita were ready to duplicate the success they had only two months earlier when a similar request came in.

The garbage truck was diverted to the center, where the load was set to be dumped. Joe also headed out to join in the search.

“I said, ‘You know, what’s the odds of us really doing this two times in a row?’” Wiggins told CBS2.

According to Wiggins, there's a science to determining exactly where in a truck load a particular garbage bag is likely to be. The bags collected at the beginning of the route end up toward the front of the truck, while the bags picked up last will be in the back.

Using that logic, Wiggins and his team knew the bag had to be about three-quarters into the truck. Vicky was also certain that they were looking for a white stretch bag, with a diamond-patterned surface and black tie.

By 8 a.m., the search was on, and within a half hour, the recycling team had found the bag and secured the rings.

In a scene captured with a cell phone, Bonita tells Vicky the good news...

“You found the rings?” Vicky screams.

“I found the rings," answers Bonita. "Yes, I got all three of them.”

“Friday the 13th is my lucky day now,” says Vicky.

Wiggins and Bonavita are getting so good at finding valuables amid tons of rotting trash that their co-workers have dubbed each of them "Lord of the Rings."

Wiggins complimented Joe for his willingness to wade into piles of garbage in search of his wife's wedding bands.

“He wanted the rings that were blessed at his wedding,” Wiggins told Newsday. “I gotta give the guy credit, he jumped right in there.”

In mid-November, the team found the wedding rings of North Babylon resident Colleen Dyckman. That search took four hours.

Wiggins told Newsday that during his 40 years in the sanitation business, he's been called on to find precious jewelry a dozen or so times. Before this November, he's met with success only twice. Now's he's found the treasure two times in a row, only two months apart.

To show their gratitude, the Salzones provided the sanitation crew with a catered lunch, and offered a heartfelt review.

“They’re good people at the town,” Joe told Newsday. “They do dirty work, but they are just absolutely wonderful.”

Credits: Screen captures via newyorkcbslocal.com.

Guam Soccer Player Gets Yellow Card for Proposing to Girlfriend After Scoring Sensational Bicycle Kick Goal

On the tiny island of Guam, a cold-hearted soccer referee booked a player for celebrating his sensational bicycle kick goal with an on-field marriage proposal.

On January 7, NAPA Rovers' striker Ashton Surber was having his best day ever. In the 35th minute of the Premier Division match against the first place Shipyard team, the player buried a bicycle kick — also called an overhead kick or scissors kick — into the top corner of the goal to put his team up 3-0.

The ecstatic player sprinted toward the visitor's sideline, looking for his girlfriend in the stands while stripping off his shirt. Under his team shirt was an undershirt with the question “MARRY ME?” emblazoned in bold black letters on the front.

Apparently, the striker had been planning to propose, but needed the perfect moment to pop the question. Successfully executing a bicycle kick — during which a player faces away from the goal, jumps backwards into the air and then kicks the ball when it is above his head — was just the ticket.

As he made eye contact with his now-fiancée, La’Kiesha Pereda, Surber's elation contrasts with the scowl of the referee, who has followed the player to the sideline.

The referee reaches into his pocket and issues Surber a yellow card for the infraction of removing his shirt during a game. From the referee's viewpoint, he can't see the proposal message on Surber's shirt and seems oblivious to the fact that he's throwing shade on an epic romantic moment.

Unfazed, Surber continues the proposal and the celebration. He gets down on one knee, blows a kiss to his girlfriend and points to the cheering fans.

The defending champion NAPA Rovers won the match 5-1, putting the team on top in the Premier Division.

More importantly, Pereda said "Yes" to her boyfriend's proposal.

On Twitter, the Guam Football Association posted a clip of the fun sequence with the following caption: "When your life goals come together w/your soccer goals - a bicycle kick goal and by a proposal to now fiancée."

The Guam Football Association also published a longer clip on YouTube.com. Enjoy.

Credits: Screen captures via YouTube.com/GuamFootball.