Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you throwback songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, 1970s icon John Denver copes with separation anxiety by promising a wedding ring in the timeless hit, “Leaving on a Jet Plane.”

In this deeply personal song about the heartbreak of being far away from the one you love, the musician is about to embark on an extended tour, but before he heads to the airport, he wants to assure his girlfriend that he is totally committed to her.

With an impatient taxi driver waiting for him at the curb, Denver wakes his girlfriend at the crack of dawn. He begs her to “wait for him” and promises that they will tie the knot when he returns.

He sings, “Every place I go, I’ll think of you / Every song I sing, I’ll sing for you / When I come back, I’ll bring your wedding ring.”

“This is a very personal and very special song for me,” Denver told the BBC years after the song's release. “It doesn’t conjure up Boeing 707s or 747s for me as much as it does the simple scenes of leaving. Bags packed and standing by the front door, taxi pulling up in the early morning hours, the sound of a door closing behind you, and the thought of leaving someone that you care for very much. It still strikes a lonely and anguished chord in me, because the separation still continues, although not so long and not so often nowadays.”

The son of a US Army Air Forces pilot, Denver and his family moved often and it was difficult for the introverted little boy to make friends. Even as an adult, he was always tormented by the feeling of not knowing where the “right” place was.

The anguish of being on the road inspired a 23-year-old Denver to write “Babe, I Hate to Go” (later renamed “Leaving on a Jet Plane”) in 1966 during a layover at Washington airport. The song was first released on Denver’s studio album John Denver Sings, but didn’t become a smash hit until his producer, Milt Okun, introduced the song to Peter, Paul and Mary in 1969. That version went to #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and became the trio’s biggest hit.

As the writer of the immensely popular “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” Denver saw his solo career kick into overdrive. Bolstered by songs, such as “Take Me Home Country Roads,” “Annie’s Song,” “Rocky Mountain High,” “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” and “Sunshine on My Shoulders,” Denver became one of the most popular acts of the 1970s.

Born Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr., in Roswell, NM, in 1943, Denver spent most of his adult life in his much-beloved adopted state of Colorado. In fact, he took the name “Denver” to honor Colorado — and because the name Deutschendorf was not likely to fit on many marquees.

Over the course of his career, Denver recorded about 300 songs and sold more than 33 million albums worldwide. Sadly, his career was cut short when his two-seat plane crashed near Monterey Bay, CA, in 1997. Denver's remains were cremated and his ashes scattered over his beloved Rocky Mountains. He was 53.

Please check out the video of Denver performing “Leaving on a Jet Plane” with harmonies by 'Mama' Cass Elliott on the The Midnight Special in 1972. The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…

“Leaving on a Jet Plane”
Written and performed by John Denver.

All my bags are packed
I’m ready to go
I’m standin’ here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye
But the dawn is breakin’
It’s early morn
The taxi’s waitin’
He’s blowin’ his horn
Already I’m so lonesome
I could die

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you’ll wait for me
Hold me like you’ll never let me go
‘Cause I’m leavin’ on a jet plane
Don’t know when I’ll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go

There’s so many times I’ve let you down
So many times I’ve played around
I tell you now, they don’t mean a thing
Every place I go, I’ll think of you
Every song I sing, I’ll sing for you
When I come back, I’ll bring your wedding ring

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you’ll wait for me
Hold me like you’ll never let me go
‘Cause I’m leavin’ on a jet plane
Don’t know when I’ll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go

Now the time has come to leave you
One more time
Let me kiss you
Then close your eyes
I’ll be on my way
Dream about the days to come
When I won’t have to leave alone
About the times, I won’t have to say

Oh, kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you’ll wait for me
Hold me like you’ll never let me go
‘Cause I’m leavin’ on a jet plane
Don’t know when I’ll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go

But, I’m leavin’ on a jet plane
Don’t know when I’ll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go

Credit: Photo by John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel Maryland, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

With the recent discovery of a 391-carat Type IIa diamond at the Meya Mine in Sierra Leone, the tiny West African nation can now claim to be the source of six of the world's most exceptional rough diamonds.

Officially, the still-unnamed stone will slot in at #54 on Wikipedia's "Largest Rough Diamonds" list, joining the Star of Sierra Leone (10th, 1973, 968.9 carats), The Woyie River (17th, 1945, 770 carats), Peace Diamond (21st, 2017, 709 carats), The Sefadu (24th, 1970, 620 carats) and Meya Prosperity (40th, 2017, 476.7 carats).

As we learned recently with the unveiling of the 2,492-carat diamond from the Karowe Mine in Botswana, the key to sourcing "mega-diamonds" is getting them through the sorting process intact.

In the case of the recent Meya find, mining officials reported that the 391.45-carat stone would have weighed 514.99 carats if it hadn't broken into three pieces. The other two chunks weighed 105.43 carats, and 18.11 carats, respectively.

Back in 2017, the 476.7-carat Meya Prosperity was part of a larger stone that met the same fate. That rough gem weighed 523.44 carats and also fractured into three pieces. The primary chunk was purchased by luxury jeweler Graff for $16.5 million.

"Our priority now is to ensure that going forward we can recover these high-value stones intact," said Jan Joubert, CEO of Meya Mining. "We will work closely with our engineering and processing partners to upgrade the plant, eliminate breakages and increase its capacity to recover exceptionally large diamonds."

Joubert emphasized that only four mines in the world "infrequently" recover these exceptional, high-quality, +500-carat diamonds.

Said Joubert, "The fact that Meya has recovered two +500-carat Type IIa diamonds after treating only 84,195 tons of competent kimberlite from the Meya River domain suggests that there is a high probability of recovering more and possibly bigger diamonds once the mine reaches steady state production of 500,000 tons of kimberlite throughput per annum."

The Type IIa classification represents a colorless diamond with no measurable impurities. Type IIa gems account for less than 2% of all natural diamonds.

The Meya Mining concession encompasses 80 square miles located within the diamond-rich Kono District.

Credit: Sierra Leone's minister of mines and mineral resources Julius Daniel Mattai shows off the 391.45-carat diamond. Photo courtesy of Sierra Leone's National Minerals Agency.

After a six-year legal battle, the fate of a $70,000 diamond solitaire engagement ring will be decided by Massachusetts' highest court. The Supreme Judicial Court heard arguments this past Friday in a case that will finally provide clarity to the age-old question: Who gets to keep the diamond engagement ring if the wedding is called off?

The final ruling, which is expected within 130 days, will not only end the dispute between Bruce Johnson and Caroline Settino, who were briefly engaged in 2017, but also set an important legal precedent in Massachusetts.

Back in 2021, a Massachusetts Superior Court ruled that despite Johnson's suspicions that his fiancée was having an affair, the allegations were unfounded and it was his fault that the wedding was called off. As a result, Settino was entitled to keep the ring. Johnson could have retained the ring if he could have convinced the court that the breakup was not his fault.

But, then a Massachusetts Appeals Court in 2023 turned the lower court's decision on its head.

A panel ruled in Johnson's favor, stating that he may have had solid reasons to call off the engagement even if couldn't prove infidelity.

"Sometimes there simply is no fault to be had," the court said.

The Appeals Court asked the Supreme Court to take the case and decide once and for all whether engagement rings should be returned after a breakup, no matter who is at fault.

In fact, a majority of states currently take the "no fault" approach. They consider engagement rings a "conditional" gift that should be returned by the recipient if the relationship fails to culminate in a marriage. Who is at fault is not considered.

In this view, according to Virginia-based law firm SmolenPlevy, the ring is given with the understanding that the couple will get married in the future and symbolizes a verbal contract. Ownership of the ring is not fully transferred until the wedding ceremony is completed.

The law firm added that a minority of states take the opposite view. They consider the ring an "unconditional gift," so if either person breaks off the engagement, the recipient gets to keep the ring.

Ownership of the ring can be further complicated by whether the ring was given as a “gift” on a holiday or birthday, for example.

The Telegraph noted that in the UK, an engagement ring is considered to be an “absolute gift.” Unless there were conditions attached by the giver, the receiver of the ring is generally entitled to keep it. Still, UK cases can sometimes get muddied when the engagement ring is a family heirloom.

SmolenPlevy recommends that the best way to avoid costly, emotional and drawn-out litigation is to enter into a prenuptial or premarital agreement, which outlines clearly who will get the ring if the wedding never takes place. This agreement also can cover what happens to the ring if the couple gets married, but later divorces.

According to The Telegraph, the $70,000 ring at the center of the Massachusetts dispute is currently in the custody of a third party until a final verdict can be reached.

Credit: Image by BigStockPhoto.com.

A perfectly picturesque proposal under the bright lights of Times Square in New York City took a terrible turn for the worse when South Carolinian Chasom Wilson fumbled the engagement ring just before popping the question to his long-time love, Kayla Pressley.

This was the small-town couple's first time in New York City and Wilson was not aware of the unspoken rule that proposals and expensive engagement rings should never be exchanged atop a metal sidewalk grate.

Wilson and Pressley were just a few steps from the red bleachers (aka the TKTS Red Steps in the heart of the city) at about 8 p.m. under a light drizzle when Wilson went down on one knee, pulled out a ring box, snapped it open, and watched a princess-cut diamond engagement ring fly out of the box and disappear through the grate.

“It was like everything moved in slow motion,” Wilson, 33, told The Post. “I was in disbelief that this is what we came to New York for and it fell through. I felt like the worst man on the planet Earth.”

At first, Pressley was not sure why her boyfriend was using the flashlight on his phone to look through the grate, but it soon became apparent that the proposal had gone awry.

But, as luck would have it, Elvimar (Elvi) Rivas and Bertilio Caceres of Con Edison’s Steam Operations were doing routine safety patrols in the area. Wilson flagged down the utility workers in their truck and told them what had just happened.

“We took out a flashlight and we started looking down because we thought maybe it fell in one of our electric manholes," recalled Caceres, senior engineering designer. “We could see the ring, but it was super deep.”

But the duo quickly determined that the structure was not controlled by Con Edison. It was a subway vent operated by the MTA (Metropolitan Transit Authority). The ring had landed on a trash-strewn ledge about 20 feet below street level.

The Con Edison employees told a distraught Wilson to call 311 (NYC's non-emergency number) for assistance, but the deflated beau stated that he couldn't do that because they were returning to South Carolina the next day.

“I knew we wouldn’t get that ring back,” Wilson told The Post. “I said, ‘It’s over with.'”

“The whole weekend I kept thinking about this man's face and this ring,” recalled Rivas, senior analyst. “He was heartbroken.”

So, Rivas and Caceres called 311 on the tourists’ behalf and made it their mission to make sure the ring was rescued and returned to the couple in South Carolina.

On Monday, the pair sought the assistance of higher-ups at Con Edison and eventually an executive who was able to contact his counterpart at the MTA.

Soon after, an MTA Infrastructure Crew arrived at the scene of the loss. Since Times Square is so busy, they waited until the overnight shift so they could shut down the area to safely access the diamond ring.

The MTA team successfully recovered the ring and mailed it back to the couple.

“It made my whole year, just being able to help somebody recover a ring, especially in Times Square,” Rivas told The Post. “That’s near impossible to do.”

Pressley officially accepted Wilson's redo proposal on Stone Mountain in Cleveland, SC. The original ring had not made it to South Carolina in time for the ceremony and she accepted a similar replacement ring. Now she has two and she plans to keep them both.

Pressley told The Post that she believes the engagement happened the way it was supposed to.

“I just felt it was all God’s timing,” she said.

Their wedding is scheduled for May of 2025.

Credits: Couple photo courtesy of Kayla Pressley. Con Edison team (from left to right) Elvimar Rivas, Bertilio Caceres, Peter Knoblauch, Kiara Lebron, and John Masiello. Image courtesy of Con Edison.

Lucara Diamond Corp. CEO William Lamb recently sang the praises of the company's Mega-Diamond Recovery (MDR) system that's been yielding amazing finds at the company's Karowe Mine in Botswana.

Designed to identify and preserve the "biggest of the big," the technology was credited with securing the 2,492-carat stone discovered by the company on August 19. It's the second-largest rough diamond every discovered. Only the 3,106-carat Cullinan, discovered in South Africa in 1905, was larger.

During a recent podcast, Lamb told Rapaport senior analyst Joshua Freedman how Lucara learned from lessons of the past. He said the company started working on its MDR system just after the discovery of the 1,109-carat Lesedi La Rona in November of 2015. While that find was monumental, it was disturbing to learn that the stone was originally much larger. A 374-carat chunk, retrieved during the recovery process, fit perfectly into the main piece.

Lamb and his team believed the Lesedi La Rona may have been 2,000 carats or larger in its original state.

"If you ever came to our plant and you stood on the top of the feed conveyor, you would see material dropping off," he said. "A stone the size of the Lesedi diamond might actually survive the fall… but it's the 300 millimeter rock that fell onto the Lesedi that could have cleaved this piece off."

Lucara's mission was to recover mega-diamonds before there was any chance of damaging them. The system ejects the large rough gems from the processing stream and redirects them to a sort box to be inspected later.

"In 2017, we installed two new XRT (X-ray transmission) machines, upfront, just off to the primary crusher," Lamb said. "Up to a 5,000-carat stone could be recovered from the machines. We are looking for the biggest of the big."

Lamb told Freedman that the quality of the 2,492-carat diamond was still being accessed and added that it's still not clear how this "legacy" stone (defined as being valued at $10 million or more) will be sold.

Previously discovered legacy stones have been cut and polished into smaller stones, but this one still has a chance of being preserved intact.

Lamb left open the possibility that "the largest stone in living memory" could be sold to a museum or a collector.

Lamb recalled: "When we would pull out the Lesedi, we would say, 'There's not a person alive who has seen a stone of this size.' This is just that next step up."

The CEO also noted what the 2,492-carat rough gem means to Botswana and the natural diamond industry. For Botswana, the diamond translates into new revenue for roads and schools.

For the diamond industry, it's an opportunity to differentiate natural diamonds from their lab-grown counterparts.

“Let’s bring more people in so that they can actually understand what a natural diamond represents, what it means for Botswana, how this stone… was brought into the light,” Lamb told Freedman. “A lot of people don’t understand that a rough diamond has a tumultuous task of getting to surface. It travels between 200 and 500 kilometers in a magma tube at 1,000 degrees Celsius to get to surface. It is a phenomenon that we can… even recover these stones without them being destroyed.”

Check out the full Rapaport Diamond Podcast at this link.

Credit: Image courtesy of CNW Group/Lucara Diamond Corp.

Welcome to Music Friday when we often bring you fun singalongs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, we feature a nostalgic ballad from Aussie singer-songwriter Vance Joy. “Like Gold” tells the story of a perfect love, a painful breakup and the promise of a second chance.

As many authors and lyricists have done in the past, Joy uses “gold” to symbolize a life experience that is precious, pure and ideal.

He sings, “Closing my eyes, remember how we were like / Gold, when you see me / Hi, if you need me / Babe, that’s the way it was / That’s the history / Blue, how we used to roar / Like an open fire / That’s the way it was / But that’s history.”

“I wrote ‘Like Gold’ after coming off the road at the start of 2016,” Joy said. “It started with a simple melody I was humming and the idea of looking back at a relationship.”

He added in a 2018 interview with Aussie music site abc.net.au that the song is "about a love that you're kind of reflecting on and the fire's gone out but there [were] some really good times in there."

“Like Gold” was released in 2017 as the second single of Joy’s album, Nation of Two.

In reviewing "Like Gold," Baeblemusic.com wrote, “Joy literally brings joy to our ears with this new track. His unique ability to turn the pain of a past relationship into something hopeful gives this song the flavor we desperately crave.”

“The alternative-folk-meets-pop track hears him reminiscing on a failed relationship with painful imagery of having to let go but not being ready to,” wrote thomasbleach.com. “It’s going to emotionally connect with anyone who’s had to learn to let go in the past with a few touching lyrics that offer a rare sense of calm.”

Born James Keough in Melbourne, Australia, Joy took his stage name from a character in the 1981 Peter Carey novel, Bliss. The 36-year-old told Australian radio station Triple J, “The main character’s name is Harry Joy and his grandfather is Vance Joy. He’s the storyteller and a crazy old man. Plus, I thought it was a cool name.”

The strapping 6′ 4″ Joy was an Australian rules football player and pursued a law degree before trying his luck on the Melbourne open-mic scene at the end of the 2000s. His folk-pop single “Riptide” caught the attention of Atlantic Records, which signed him to a five-album deal in 2013.

His current tour includes a two-night engagement at New York's Radio City Music Hall. Other stops include San Diego, CA; Los Angeles, CA; Berkeley, CA; Salt Lake City, UT; Greenwood Village, CO; Chicago, IL; Nashville, TN; Colombia, MD; Toronto, Canada; and Wembley, UK.

BTW, Joy did find the ultimate Joy when he married his long-time girlfriend and Spanish art director, Selen Us, in June of 2023. They welcomed their first child, Gigi, in early 2024.

Please check out the video of Joy performing “Like Gold” at the Hallowed Halls in Portland, OR, in 2018. The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…

“Like Gold”
Written and performed by Vance Joy.

Time to let it go
It won’t let go of me
Hanging by a thread
Cutting the cord and then falling back in
The black cause if I don't
If I wait till it feels right
I’ll be waiting my whole life
Closing my eyes remember how we were like

Gold when you see me
High If you need me
Babe that's the way it was
That's the history
Blue how we used to roar
Like an open fire
That's the way it was
But that's history

Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
That's the way it was
But that's history
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
That's the way it was
But that's history

I have a memory
You're visiting me at night
Climbing in my bed
You were so quiet that you never woke me
I love the way you could
See the good in everything
But, do we fuel the fire?
Closing my eyes, remember how we were like

Gold, when you see me
Hi, if you need me
Babe, that's the way it was
That's the history
Blue, how we used to roar
Like an open fire
That's the way it was
But that's history

Started with a word
Now, look at where we are
Everything we've done
It's there on our faces for anyone willing to
Read between the lines
Now, look at where we are
Everything we've done
It's there on our faces for anyone willing to

Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
That's the way it was
But that's history
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
That's the way it was
But that's history

Well, I got a feeling
Darling, it's possible
'Cause love's got no ceiling
Now, that it's just so strong
And I got a feeling
Like everything is possible
I'm trying to change

Gold, when you see me
Hi, if you need me
Babe, that's the way it was
That's the history
Blue, how we used to roar
Like an open fire
That's the way it was
But that's history

Started with a word
Now, look at where we are
Everything we've done
It's there on our faces for anyone willing to
Read between the lines
Now, look at where we are
Everything we've done
Started out with just one

Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh

Gold, when you see me
Hi, if you need me
Babe, that's the way it was
But that's history

Credit: Photo by Bruce from Sydney, Australia, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Hailey Bieber just added a sparkly new keepsake to her jewelry wardrobe, a diamond-embellished "MOM" ring that commemorates the birth of Jack Blues Bieber on August 22.

The model and skincare entrepreneur showed off the ring on her Instagram Stories on September 3. About two weeks earlier, proud papa Justin shared a pic of his wife holding the baby's foot, along with the caption, "WELCOME HOME JACK BLUES BIEBER." He punctuated his Instagram post with a teddy bear emoji.

The new mom chose to wear the dimensional "MOM" ring on the index finger of her left hand. Designed by Miami-based Isabela Grutman, the ring's letters seem to rise from the band on different planes. According to pagesix.com, the ring features .21 carats of diamonds set in 14-karat gold.

On the ring finger of the same hand is the upgraded 18-carat oval-cut diamond engagement ring that she received in late spring. The ring commemorated the renewal of the couple's wedding vows after five years of marriage, as well as the exciting news that they were expecting their first child.

Her previous engagement ring — with an oval-cut diamond said to weigh between 6 and 10 carats — has found a new home on the pinky of her right hand.

Justin, 30, originally proposed to Hailey, 27, in July of 2018 and the couple tied the knot in a New York City courthouse two months later. Their more formal wedding in South Carolina in September of 2019 has been called one of the most iconic celebrity celebrations of all time.

Credits: Image via Instagram / haileybieber; Instagram / justinbieber.

Fans of the US version of Antiques Roadshow on PBS learned a lot about "Kashmir" sapphires during a fascinating episode that originally aired in May of last year. It's an episode well worth revisiting as we celebrate September's official birthstone.

Filmed on the grounds of the Shelburne Museum in rustic Shelburne, VT, the highlight of Season 27 Episode 15 was appraiser Lucy Grogan Edwards' assessment of an Edwardian-period sapphire-and-diamond ring that was originally owned by the guest's great-great-grandmother, who died in 1912.

Edwards told the guest that when she first inspected the sapphire her "eyes lit up" because the stone was likely sourced in the Kashmir region of northern India.

The Boston-based appraiser explained that the platinum ring with milgrain details, Old-European-Cut diamond side stones and sapphire center stone was purchased circa 1900, a time when most sapphires were sourced in either Burma (now Myanmar) or Kashmir.

"When we're appraising sapphires, we're most concerned and interested in their origin," she told the guest.

She explained that Kashmir sapphires are considered to be the most beautiful, perfect standard sapphire that you could have in a piece of jewelry. She also outlined why Kashmir sapphires are so rare.

"In 1880, there was a landslide in the Kashmir region of India, and that landslide revealed sapphire deposits," she said. "The sapphires that were coming out of this area were the most beautiful in their color and their depth and their quality. So the maharaja of India at the time very quickly claimed that region for himself."

However, overmining during the period from 1882 to 1887 left that area completely depleted of sapphires.

"So every Kashmir sapphire that we see today came out of the ground in the Kashmir region of India in that five-year period," she said. "So they are very rare and spectacular in their quality."

Although Edwards' professional hunch is that the sapphire originated in Kashmir, she affirmed that the only way to really determine the origin of a sapphire is to have it tested at a gem lab.

Edwards told the guest that if her great-great-grandmother's ring held a Burmese sapphire — which is also a very beautiful stone — the ring would be valued at $40,000 to $60,000.

"And if it is, indeed, a Kashmir sapphire, which I feel pretty confident it is, at auction, I think we're looking at somewhere between $100,000 and $150,000," she told the shocked guest.

"That's quite something," the guest responded. "Thank you so much, I don't know what else to say."

"Well, I think we have your great-great-grandmother to thank for her exquisite taste," said Edwards, who added that she can count on one hand the number of Kashmir sapphires she has seen during her career.

"I hope that you do continue to wear it, because a sapphire like this really does deserve to be seen," said Edwards.

"Yes, it does," the guest agreed.

You can check out the full episode at this link…

Credits: Screen captures via pbs.org.

The 330-carat "Star of Asia" is one of the world's finest star sapphires and a brilliant example of September's official birthstone. While the stone is renowned for its impressive size, intense color and sharp star, its origin story is cloaked in mystery.

The impressive gem was acquired for the National Gem Collection in 1961 and is a featured attraction at the Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems and Minerals of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, in Washington D.C.

During most of its Smithsonian residency, curators at the museum were convinced that the "Star of Asia" had been sourced at the historic Mogok mines of Burma (now Myanmar), and that it was once owned by India’s Maharajah of Jodhpur.

In his 2021 book Unearthed, Surprising Stories Behind the Jewels, Dr. Jeffrey E. Post, curator of the National Gem Collection for more than 25 years, added clarity to the gem's history by interviewing the family members of the original owners.

It turns out that the "Star of Asia" was not discovered in Burma, it was mined in Sri Lanka. The gem was co-owned by the Kohinoor Trading Company and King's Jewelers of Colombo, Sri Lanka.

The "Star of Asia" made its US debut in 1950 at the the first United States International Trade Fair in Chicago. Eight years later, it was offered for sale on consignment in London and subsequently purchased by Swiss-American Jack Mason.

In 1961, famed mineral dealer and collector Martin Leo Ehrmann, representing Mason, traded the star sapphire to the Smithsonian for a parcel of small faceted diamonds. Ehrmann likely embellished the gem's noble provenance to pump up its trade value.

All sapphires are made of the mineral corundum (crystalline aluminum oxide). In its pure state, the corundum is colorless, but when trace elements are naturally introduced to the chemical composition, a spectrum of colors are possible.

Blue sapphires occur, for instance, when aluminum atoms are displaced with those of titanium and iron in the gem’s crystal lattice structure.

According to the Smithsonian, the star forms when titanium atoms are trapped within the growing corundum crystal. As the crystal cools, the titanium forms needlelike crystals of the mineral rutile, which orient themselves in three directions.

When properly cut, light reflecting off the three sets of needles produces the six-rayed star. This phenomenon is called “asterism,” which is derived from the Latin word “astrum,” for “star.”

Credit: Image by Chip Clark/Smithsonian and digitally enhanced by SquareMoose.

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you exciting songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, Diamond Rio frontman Marty Roe puts a “big down payment on that itty bitty diamond ring” in the memorable 1998 singalong, “Unbelievable.”

In the song written by Jeffrey Steele and Al Anderson, an infatuated Roe is crazy in love with his “unbelievable” new girlfriend. His life had been lonely and boring, but now a magnificent beauty has turned his world upside-down — so much so that he stutters when he tries to speak to her.

Peppered with delectable harmonies, the hard-driving, crossover hit features the unforgettable refrain: “kissable, huggable, lovable, unbelievable.”

The song’s jewelry reference includes this line, “Elegant, intelligent, heaven sent, all my money spent / I put a big down payment on that itty bitty diamond ring.”

Released as the title track of the group’s fifth studio album, “Unbelievable” zoomed to #2 on the US Billboard Hot Country chart and #1 on Canada’s RPM Country Tracks chart. The song also had crossover appeal, as it topped out at a respectable #36 on the broader-based US Billboard Hot 100 chart.

“Unbelievable” was originally written for country star George Jones, according to Songfacts.com. When Jones passed on the song, Diamond Rio scooped it up. Recalled writer Anderson, “I know all of a sudden they liked it and cut it and put it out, and it was the most played Arista record that year.”

Founded in Nashville in 1982, Diamond Rio featured the same six members from 1989 until 2022. They included Gene Johnson, Jimmy Olander, Brian Prout, Dan Truman, Dana Williams and Roe. When Prout and Johnson left the band in 2022, they were replaced by Micah Schweinsberg and Carson McKee.

The group was originally named the Grizzly River Boys (a river rafting ride at Opryland USA). Few band members liked the name so it was changed to the Tennessee River Boys. The name would change one final time in 1990 after the group signed a record deal with Arista.

Band member Prout suggested the name Diamond Rio not because he wanted the band to be associated with precious stones or an exotic city in Brazil. The name was, in fact, a nod to the Diamond Reo truck company, which ceased operations in 2013.

The group is a 14-time Grammy nominee and was named the Country Music Association’s Vocal Group of the Year four times in the 1990s. Diamond Rio is also a member of the Grand Ole Opry.

The band is currently touring with performances scheduled in Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Tennessee, South Dakota, Minnesota, Texas, Florida, North Carolina and Georgia through the middle of October.

Please check out the video of Diamond Rio performing "Unbelievable." The lyrics are below if you'd like to sing along…

“Unbelievable”
Written by Jeffrey Steele and Al Anderson. Performed by Diamond Rio.

She’s so kissable, huggable, lovable, unbelievable
She’s a mouthful of anything and everything a man could want
She ain’t typical, she’s unpredictable, she’s available, it’s a miracle
How my heart stumbled into someone so kissable, huggable, lovable, unbelievable

Up ’til now my life has been so lonely and boring
I never thought I would find someone so

Elegant, intelligent, heaven sent, all my money spent
I put a big down payment on that itty bitty diamond ring
She’s so beautiful, it’s indisputable, it’s undeniable, she’s got-to-havable
She’s music to my ears, and makes my heart sing, so kissable, huggable, lovable, unbelievable

There’s so many things
I want to tell her
Like I love her
But every time I talk
I start to stutter

She’s so elegant, intelligent, heaven sent, all my money spent
I put a big down payment on that itty bitty diamond ring
She’s so beautiful, it’s indisputable, it’s undeniable, she’s got-to-havable
She’s music to my ears, and makes my heart sing, kissable, huggable, lovable, unbelievable

Kissable, huggable, lovable, unbelievable
Kissable, huggable, lovable, unbelievable

Credit: Photo by Canadian Forces PO 1 Aaron Peterson, Navy Visual News Service, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.