'Afternoon Delight' makes Danoff happy

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Count songwriter Bill Danoff among the millions laughing at the politically incorrect antics of Will Ferrell and company in "Anchorman," especially at the harmonious send-up of his Grammy-winning song, "Afternoon Delight."

"I love it," says Mr. Danoff, 58, from his home in the District. "It's my favorite new thing, one of those funny, dumb movies."

Apparently lots of other people enjoyed the film, which stars Mr. Ferrell as a competitive TV newsman opposite Christina Applegate. The film earned $28.4 million in its first weekend (July 9-11), finishing second to "Spiderman 2."

"'Afternoon Delight' has enjoyed its new rebirth," says Mr. Danoff, who wrote the song for his group, Starland Vocal Band. It hit Billboard's No. 1 slot July 10, 1976. Some 28 years later, a comic video of the song is in heavy rotation on VH-1.

This is not the way Mr. Danoff had it figured, although he points out that the original version of the song was playing under a brief scene involving Mr. Ferrell in the recent "Starsky & Hutch" film staring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson.

"Apparently, he really likes this tune," he says. And apparently, its use in "Anchorman" was practically an afterthought.

Mr. Danoff says actor Paul Rudd, who plays a TV newsman in the film, has reported that the comic news crew was killing time on the set between takes when one of the actors started singing the song as a joke. The four actors knew the words, so they started working up the harmony parts.

The rest, as they say, is comedy.

Back in the '70s, when "Afternoon Delight" was working back down the Billboard charts, Mr. Danoff says, "it was more of a pop hit, so when its time came and went, I thought that would be it."

But the song resurfaced in the '90s during the first wave of nostalgia for the 1970s, "looking back on a time that didn't really exist," Mr. Danoff says.