Christopher Cross opened up about the origin behind his iconic 1981 hit "Arthur's Theme," the theme song to the 1981 film Arthur.

The "Sailing" singer explained how the song came to be written by Cross, Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager and Peter Allen, ultimately including the famous lyric, "When you get caught between the moon and New York City."

"I was asked by Orion Pictures to score the movie," Cross revealed to Questlove on the May 25 episode of The QuestLove Show. "And the director asked Burt [Bacharach] to help. Burt was married to Carol [Bayer Sager] at the time. So, they invited me over to their house, and I got there at midnight! It was pretty intimidating for sure."

Cross continued, revealing that the infamous aforementioned lyric was actually written by Allen, despite him not being in the same room as the other three songwriters.

"We started working on the music, and Carol stumbled upon the realization that she and Peter had a song they never finished, with the line 'when you get caught between the moon and New York City,'" Cross said. "That line actually came when Peter was [on a plane] circling Kennedy airport and was stuck in a hold. The line popped into his head, since the moon was out his window on the plane, and he was wanting to land to be with his partner. Peter came up with the line, and Carol called him and asked him if he was cool with us plugging that line in [to 'Arthur's Theme']. So, he phoned in the song, and he won an Oscar for it."

The track would go on to win Best Original Song at the 54th Academy Awards and 39th Golden Globe Awards, while also reaching the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100.

Listen to the full episode above.

Chris Davis