Sky Rockets In Flight!
- Thread starter The Judge
- Start date
On a completly unrelated note, the first response to this post within the next five minutes that has the correct answers to the following wins a $10.00 - 5 team parlay on tomorrow's NCAAF games. No dog ML's but 4 out of 5 pays even money.
Name the band, album title AND song which originally featured the lyrics "Sky rockets in flight".
Name the band, album title AND song which originally featured the lyrics "Sky rockets in flight".
Skyrockets in Flight
A reader wonders who the Starland Vocal Band was. You have come to the right place to find out. They're only one of the quintessential acts of the 1970s, quintessential thanks to the way they turned a single hit record into Grammy Award glory, a TV variety show, and ultimately, a return to the obscurity from whence they sprung.
The Starland Vocal Band (possibly the most uncool group name ever) were proteges of John Denver, back in the days when being a protege of John Denver meant something in the music biz. Their record, "Afternoon Delight," was distinctly Denveresque without a whiff of rock feeling at all, and close vocal harmony that was pretty retro even back then. But it also featured subject matter and lyrics that were surprisingly explicit for 1976. The subject: a nooner. The lyrics that got noticed included:
Started out this morning feeling so polite
I always thought a fish could not be caught who didn't bite
But you've got some bait a-waitin' and I think I might
Like nibblin' a little afternoon delight
And also:
Thinkin' of you's working up my appetite
Looking forward to a little afternoon delight
Rubbin' sticks and stones together makes the sparks ignite
And the thought of rubbin' you is getting so exciting
Tame now, fairly hot then--and enough to get the record to number one on July 10, 1976, and Grammy nominations for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Vocal Arrangement. (They won only the latter, beating out, among others, Queen's operatic "Bohemian Rhapsody.") The group also won for Best New Artist, beating out Boston, Wild Cherry, the Brothers Johnson, and Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band, making that year's slate of nominees a veritable who's-who of "Where are they now?" acts. And in the summer of 1977, they got their own limited-run variety show on CBS, best remembered for the fact that David Letterman was one of its writers and frequently appeared in sketches. What was missing were more hit records. They never returned to the Top 40, although a few more singles made the lower reaches of the pop chart through 1980, when the group broke up.
But here's the thing: "Afternoon Delight" lives on not so much as art--you won't hear it on oldies stations a lot--but as an artifact of that summer. The Mrs. has never forgotten the day she and a friend were being driven somewhere by the friend's reluctant older brother when the song came on the radio and the three of them ended up trying to harmonize to it. As for me, I can't hear it without remembering the whole summer of 1976, the year I was 16, and everything that goes with the summer of your 16th year, cars and jobs and girls and softball, almost every minute of it bathed in a Top 40 soundtrack unmatched by any other summer of the 1970s.
If you want to sample a little "Afternoon Delight" for yourself (the song, I mean--you're on your own for the kind they're singing about) and explore the Starland Vocal Band's oeurvre in startling depth, click here. [6/24/04]
A reader wonders who the Starland Vocal Band was. You have come to the right place to find out. They're only one of the quintessential acts of the 1970s, quintessential thanks to the way they turned a single hit record into Grammy Award glory, a TV variety show, and ultimately, a return to the obscurity from whence they sprung.
The Starland Vocal Band (possibly the most uncool group name ever) were proteges of John Denver, back in the days when being a protege of John Denver meant something in the music biz. Their record, "Afternoon Delight," was distinctly Denveresque without a whiff of rock feeling at all, and close vocal harmony that was pretty retro even back then. But it also featured subject matter and lyrics that were surprisingly explicit for 1976. The subject: a nooner. The lyrics that got noticed included:
Started out this morning feeling so polite
I always thought a fish could not be caught who didn't bite
But you've got some bait a-waitin' and I think I might
Like nibblin' a little afternoon delight
And also:
Thinkin' of you's working up my appetite
Looking forward to a little afternoon delight
Rubbin' sticks and stones together makes the sparks ignite
And the thought of rubbin' you is getting so exciting
Tame now, fairly hot then--and enough to get the record to number one on July 10, 1976, and Grammy nominations for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Vocal Arrangement. (They won only the latter, beating out, among others, Queen's operatic "Bohemian Rhapsody.") The group also won for Best New Artist, beating out Boston, Wild Cherry, the Brothers Johnson, and Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band, making that year's slate of nominees a veritable who's-who of "Where are they now?" acts. And in the summer of 1977, they got their own limited-run variety show on CBS, best remembered for the fact that David Letterman was one of its writers and frequently appeared in sketches. What was missing were more hit records. They never returned to the Top 40, although a few more singles made the lower reaches of the pop chart through 1980, when the group broke up.
But here's the thing: "Afternoon Delight" lives on not so much as art--you won't hear it on oldies stations a lot--but as an artifact of that summer. The Mrs. has never forgotten the day she and a friend were being driven somewhere by the friend's reluctant older brother when the song came on the radio and the three of them ended up trying to harmonize to it. As for me, I can't hear it without remembering the whole summer of 1976, the year I was 16, and everything that goes with the summer of your 16th year, cars and jobs and girls and softball, almost every minute of it bathed in a Top 40 soundtrack unmatched by any other summer of the 1970s.
If you want to sample a little "Afternoon Delight" for yourself (the song, I mean--you're on your own for the kind they're singing about) and explore the Starland Vocal Band's oeurvre in startling depth, click here. [6/24/04]
http://campkitsch.com/sitebody/designs/buzzworthy/buzzall/afternoon_delight.htm
Get Your T-Shirt!!!!!!!
Get Your T-Shirt!!!!!!!
Starland Vocal Band
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Biography
A vocal quartet based in Washington, DC, USA, the Starland Vocal Band took one single, the novelty disco hit "Afternoon Delight", to the top of the US charts in 1976. The band comprised the husband/wife team Bill Danoff (b. 7 May 1946, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA) and Taffy Danoff (b. Kathleen Nivert, 25 October 1944, Washington, DC, USA), Jon Carroll (b. 1 March 1957, Washington, DC, USA) and Margot Chapman (b. 7 September 1957, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA). The Starland Vocal Band had its roots in a unit called Fat City which included the Danoffs. The band was formed in late 1974 and opened for John Denver on his 1975 tour (Bill had earlier co-written the John Denver hit "Take Me Home, Country Roads"); Denver subsequently signed them to his Windsong Records label. The dance song "Afternoon Delight", about the pleasures of mid-day sex, was the band's breakthrough in May 1976 and spent 14 weeks in the US charts, peaking at number 1 (the song also reached the UK Top 20). They placed a self-titled album at number 20 and three other singles charted but nothing came close to repeating the debut's success. Despite winning the Best New Artist and Best Vocal Arrangement Grammy awards, and being given a six-week television show of their own (featuring a then-unknown David Letterman), the band's popularity declined and they broke up in 1980. Carroll later wrote the Linda Ronstadt hit, "Get Closer", and eventually married Chapman; while the Danoffs divorced, but still worked together under the Fat City banner. In 1989, Bill Danoff released his solo debt, Souvenir. A follow-up was belatedly issued in 2002. He now runs the Starland Cafe in Washington, DC, with his second wife Joan.
View the Complete Album Songs List of Starland Vocal Band
Afternoon Delight - A Golden Classics Edition
Audio CD [VCL 0586]
Released February 28, 1995
SALE Price: $6.98
Retail Price: $12.97
You Save: $5.99 (46%)
(Special Clearance Item)
Description by Oldies.com:
Starland Vocal Band won the Grammy Award as Best New Artists in 1976 after they had hit the top of the charts with "Afternoon Delight". This collection features their biggest hits among this twenty finely harmonized and sung tracks.
:clap: not a fan of this band but a fan of music :mj14:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Biography
A vocal quartet based in Washington, DC, USA, the Starland Vocal Band took one single, the novelty disco hit "Afternoon Delight", to the top of the US charts in 1976. The band comprised the husband/wife team Bill Danoff (b. 7 May 1946, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA) and Taffy Danoff (b. Kathleen Nivert, 25 October 1944, Washington, DC, USA), Jon Carroll (b. 1 March 1957, Washington, DC, USA) and Margot Chapman (b. 7 September 1957, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA). The Starland Vocal Band had its roots in a unit called Fat City which included the Danoffs. The band was formed in late 1974 and opened for John Denver on his 1975 tour (Bill had earlier co-written the John Denver hit "Take Me Home, Country Roads"); Denver subsequently signed them to his Windsong Records label. The dance song "Afternoon Delight", about the pleasures of mid-day sex, was the band's breakthrough in May 1976 and spent 14 weeks in the US charts, peaking at number 1 (the song also reached the UK Top 20). They placed a self-titled album at number 20 and three other singles charted but nothing came close to repeating the debut's success. Despite winning the Best New Artist and Best Vocal Arrangement Grammy awards, and being given a six-week television show of their own (featuring a then-unknown David Letterman), the band's popularity declined and they broke up in 1980. Carroll later wrote the Linda Ronstadt hit, "Get Closer", and eventually married Chapman; while the Danoffs divorced, but still worked together under the Fat City banner. In 1989, Bill Danoff released his solo debt, Souvenir. A follow-up was belatedly issued in 2002. He now runs the Starland Cafe in Washington, DC, with his second wife Joan.
View the Complete Album Songs List of Starland Vocal Band
Afternoon Delight - A Golden Classics Edition
Audio CD [VCL 0586]
Released February 28, 1995
SALE Price: $6.98
Retail Price: $12.97
You Save: $5.99 (46%)
(Special Clearance Item)
Description by Oldies.com:
Starland Vocal Band won the Grammy Award as Best New Artists in 1976 after they had hit the top of the charts with "Afternoon Delight". This collection features their biggest hits among this twenty finely harmonized and sung tracks.
:clap: not a fan of this band but a fan of music :mj14:
Ain't Google a wonderful addition to our existence?
However, it appears that IO got in one minute beyond the five minute deadline and neither he nor Griffin came up with the name of the album. I could be mistaken as I am posting from a hand held device (Treo) which is not very condusive to reading lengthy posts.
Nonetheless, I appreciate the effort that each of you demonstrated and will extend the "prize" to you both.
If either of you are interested, please post your five NCAAF games for tomorrow's games in this thread and I assure you that I wiil put your parlays in.
My own five team parlay is as follows:
Penn State
Texas
Stanford
Miami, FL
Texas Tech
Good luck should you choose to participate. Remember, 4 out of 5 pays even money!
(LMAO)
However, it appears that IO got in one minute beyond the five minute deadline and neither he nor Griffin came up with the name of the album. I could be mistaken as I am posting from a hand held device (Treo) which is not very condusive to reading lengthy posts.
Nonetheless, I appreciate the effort that each of you demonstrated and will extend the "prize" to you both.
If either of you are interested, please post your five NCAAF games for tomorrow's games in this thread and I assure you that I wiil put your parlays in.
My own five team parlay is as follows:
Penn State
Texas
Stanford
Miami, FL
Texas Tech
Good luck should you choose to participate. Remember, 4 out of 5 pays even money!
(LMAO)
