The group began as ‘Fat City’, a husband/wife duo of Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert. The band was also composed of Jon Carroll (keyboards, vocals) and Margot Chapman (vocals). Carroll and Chapman were also married after meeting as members of the group, but later divorced. Their son Ben Carroll is also a musician.
The group’s debut album was the self-titled Starland Vocal Band and included “Afternoon Delight”. The song was a #1 hit and the album also charted. The group was nominated for four Grammy Awards and won two – Best arrangement (voices) and Best New Artist. The follow-up album Rear View Mirror was a failure in comparison, although it was a minor chart entry, spending 13 weeks on the Billboard 200 (reaching a peak of #104). In 2010 Billboard named “Afternoon Delight” the 20th sexiest song of all time.
The band hosted a variety show, “The Starland Vocal Band Show,” that ran on CBS for five weeks in the summer of 1977. David Letterman, then still unknown, also participated in the show, as did Mark Russell, Jeff Altman, and Proctor and Bergman.
The band broke up in 1981, unable to match their previous success. Danoff and Nivert divorced shortly afterwards. Each of the band members went on to a solo career.
In 1998 the Starland Vocal Band reunited for a few concerts, often featuring the children of the four original members as vocalists. In 2007, they appeared on a 1970s special on the New Jersey Network (NJN), singing “Afternoon Delight”.
Danoff and Nivert co-wrote the hit song “Take Me Home, Country Roads” with John Denver. Denver subsequently signed them to his label Windsong Records.
