How Anne Murray's 'Could I Have This Dance' was born

It was a single, unassuming line in a song — "Could I have this dance forever?" — but Wayland Holyfield's instinct told him his friend Bob House was onto something big. The two Nashville songwriters took House's line and made it the basis for a new song, "Could I Have this Dance."
Anne Murray took it to the top of the charts later that year, and moviegoers heard her sing its famous hook ("Could I have this dance for the rest of my life?") in the hit film "Urban Cowboy." In a conversation with Bart Herbison of Nashville Songwriters Association International, Holyfield remembered how "Dance" came to be.
There are two kinds of songs every songwriter wants to get. One's a Christmas song, because you're going to have one nice quarter in performance royalties every year if you get a hit Christmas song. The other is a wedding song. You and Bob House wrote "Could I Have This Dance." Take us back to the idea and the day that song was born.
I remember it well. I was working with the publishing company of the late Bill Hall who was a fabulous publisher and a good guy. I was in my office. I worked 9 to 5 when I was doing (songwriting) full time. I don't quite have the fire in the belly anymore to do it. I'm from Arkansas, and Bob was from Harrison, Ark., so I'd kind of taken him under my wing. He hadn't had much success and he would come in and play songs. I can't remember the name of the song that he played, but in it, in a verse, he said something about "Could I have this dance forever?" or something. It was like, "Wait a minute, Bob! Could I have this dance for the rest of my life?"
Two of the greatest lines, in my opinion, in the history of music. If a song's supposed to paint a picture, and give a message ... You always say "Less is more," when you talk to young songwriters. "Could I have this dance — for the rest of my life?"
It kind of sums it up. Now, we had to have some other lines and stuff. And you're right, for a songwriter, one of the most validating things you can do is to have a song that touches people's lives, and when they use it in their weddings. I don't ask about what happened after the wedding — and if it truly was for the rest of their life — but at that time, it really validates what you do as a songwriter. And this was in 1980, right before "Urban Cowboy" came out, because Anne Murray recorded it and it was in the movie. People would come up to me and say, "We used that in our wedding." That means so much. A little bit later, they would come up and say, "My parents used that in their wedding." And this last spring, somebody came up and said, "My grandparents used it." OK, OK! It wears well. That's good.
I don't think anyone knew what a phenomenon ("Urban Cowboy") was going to be, how it was going to change music and popularize (country music). Do you remember the first time you saw the movie?

Oh yeah, I do, (with) our old friend, Gerry House. We got to go to a premiere down at 100 Oaks. He was in front of me, and after it had been played, the movie, I was just sitting there watching the credits. He turned around and said, "Pal, that's gotta feel great!" I said, "It does."