"Waiting for a Star to Fall" was released in June 1988 as the second single from Boy Meets Girl's second studio album, Reel Life (1988).

The duo did not initially consider recording the song themselves, instead submitting it to Arista's CEO Clive Davis, in the hope that he would decide to use it on Houston's second studio album, Whitney.

Even though Rubicam and Merrill had written Houston's previous hit "How Will I Know", Davis rejected "Waiting for a Star to Fall", suggesting that it did not suit her.

"[11] The video for the song, directed by Australian director Claudia Castle, features scenes of Merrill and Rubicam singing it on a beach and inside a house.

The most commercially successful versions came in 2005, when Australian musical group Cabin Crew remixed the song as "Star to Fall" (or "Star2Fall") but were refused the sampling of the original lyrics by Sony BMG.

[42] Meanwhile, Sony BMG had British musical group Sunset Strippers remix the original track under the title "Falling Stars".