Song 30:
"Afternoon Delight" by The Starland Vocal Band
Peak: 1
Year: 1976
Year end position: 12
Alphabetical Songs by Artist: 1/1
Chronological Songs by Artist: 1/1
Video?: Yes
Spotify?: Yes
Today's song is perhaps one of the most famous one-hit
wonders we will get to in this blog. I
feel that everyone knows this song. I
also feel that almost everyone lists it as a "guilty pleasure". This is the first one-hit wonder we've had so
far where the only hit was a #1 song.
This has happened an amazing 136 times in the history of the charts up
until today (about 12% of all #1 songs).
I was looking into this phenomena a little deeper. Maybe it's because there are fewer songs
hitting the charts in recent years, or because the people that can hit the
charts are mostly megastars that block out many new singers, but in 1976, when
this song came out, there were 7 #1 songs by one-hit wonders (This one, Rick
Dees, Walter Murphy, The Bellamy Brothers, Wild Cherry, Mary MacGregor and John
Sebastian). There have been 7 such songs
since 2008 (7 years as of today). Even
that most recent may be overstated, since most of those acts are still
producing songs. Food for thought about
the changing culture in the music industry.
Back to this song. I
was trying to figure out why this song seems to have stood up over time, while
"Torn Between Two Lovers" by Mary MacGregor didn't. What I came up with was my theory that this
song has a strange tension that you don't find in most songs. This song was written by one of the guys that
wrote "Take Me Home Country Roads" for John Denver. The tone, harmony and feel of the song is
that it a 70s era folk song. The tension
comes because the theme of the song seems so un-folk-sy. I think it's that gap between the tone and
the words that make it memorable. I can
remember listening to this song when I was a really little kid and not thinking
anything strange. It just sounded like a
fun song. I also think it lives in a
strange time for music and culture. It
was at a time when soft rock was still popular, but songs were getting more
explicit with their lyrics. I think that
"After the Lovin" occupies some this space (and they came out in the
same year).
For the few that unfamiliar with this song, the lyrics are
about having sex in the afternoon. The
first verse is about wondering why not have some sex in the afternoon. After all, "the night is gonna be here
anyway". The women come in during
the chorus and ratchet up the innuendo a little more with, "Rubbin sticks
and stones together make the sparks ignite.". I don't know anyone that really knows all the
lyrics to the 2nd verse. There's
something about fish being caught, and that "you've got some bait a
waitin'". I don't feel it's as strong a verse as the first. Honestly, whenever I would sing this song to
myself, I probably mumbled most of the second verse.
Despite being a one hit wonder, the Starland Vocal Band
really made the most of their time in the spotlight. This song was nominated for a Grammy award
for Best Arrangement for Vocals, Pop Duo or Group and Record of the Year. They also were nominated and won the Best New
Artist Grammy, which has started some criticism of that category for years to
come (Colin Hay of Men at Work called it: "The Best New Artist / Kiss of
Death Award"). The Starland Vocal
Band even got their own short lived show on TV, which featured none other than David
Letterman as a writer.
Obviously, they never had another hit, and they broke up
shortly later and none of them ever hit the charts ever again. They did manage to churn out one of the more
memorable songs from the 70s. It was
also one that Billboard magazine listed as #20 on its list of "Sexiest
Songs of All Time". That seems like
a stretch to me, but probably because my idea of a sexy song is more Marvin
Gaye than square dance. It's hard to
deny that the song is explicitly about sex though.
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