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Afternoon Delight
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Wikipedia article
{{Infobox song
| name = Afternoon Delight
| cover = Afternoon Delight by The Starland Vocal Band.jpg
| alt =
| type = single
| artist = Starland Vocal Band
| album = Starland Vocal Band
| B-side = Starland
| released = April 1976
| recorded = November 1975
| studio =
| venue =
| genre = Country pop, soft rock
| length = 3:12
| label =
*Windsong (US)
*Windlands International (UK & Canada)
| writer = Bill Danoff
| producer = Milt Okun
| prev_title =
| prev_year =
| next_title = California Day
| next_year = 1976
| misc =
}}
"'Afternoon Delight'" is a hit song recorded by Starland Vocal Band, known for its close harmony and sexually suggestive wordplay. It was written by Bill Danoff, one of the members of the band.
"Afternoon Delight" charted well in New Zealand, peaking at #5. In Australia it was a #6 hit (Adelaide radio station 5KA was first to pick up the single, making it #1 in South Australia). In the UK, it reached #18 and was used as theme to a weekly show of the same title on London's Capital Radio, hosted by Duncan Johnson, and from 1980 on an afternoon show using the same title, broadcast every weekday at Mercia Sound in Coventry, presented by Stuart Linnell. It became a US #1 single on July 10, 1976 and earned a gold record. "Afternoon Delight" also reached #1 in Canada.
Background and writing
The title came from the happy hour menu at Clyde's restaurant in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., where Bill Danoff was eating with fellow bandmember Margot Chapman, while his then-wife Taffy Danoff was undergoing surgery for cervical cancer. Danoff enjoyed writing the song and downplayed the somewhat controversial lyrics: "I didn't want to write an all-out sex song ... I just wanted to write something that was fun and hinted at sex."
Cover versions
Concurrent with the Starland Vocal Band version, country singer Johnny Carver's cover went Top 10 on 'Billboard' Hot Country Singles. In 1983, the Circle Jerks also covered it as one of the six covers on "Golden Shower of Hits (Jerks on 45)", which appears on their album 'Golden Shower of Hits'. In the 2004 film, 'Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy,' the song is sung by the news crew in choir and referenced multiple times and came with a music video in the bonus disk. British experimental folk music band Current 93 used an industrial-style cover as an introduction to performances of their 2009 album. Claude Franois sang it in French as "Dimanche aprs-midi". The popular TV show 'Glee' also covered it in their episode "Sexy", with Dianna Agron, Jayma Mays, Mark Salling, Lea Michele, and John Stamos singing.It was also used in the movie Politically Correct University (PCU) in which frat brothers from a rival fraternity set the stereo to play it over and over again on high volume and locking the doors thereby forcing the rival fraternity to have to listen to it over and over again.
Critical reaction
At the 19th Grammy Awards ceremony in 1977, "Afternoon Delight" received three nominations for recordings from 1976. It won the Grammy Award for Best Arrangement for Voices and was also nominated for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and Song of the Year.
In 2010 'Billboard' named "Afternoon Delight" the 20th sexiest song of all time.
Chart performance
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
All-time charts
Johnny Carver version
See also
*List of 1970s one-hit wonders in the United States
References
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