Bill Danoff

Bill Danoff (born William Danoff, 7 May 1946, Springfield, Massachusetts) is a songwriter and singer. His best known song as a performer is "Afternoon Delight", which Danoff performed as a member of the Starland Vocal Band. As a songwriter, he also wrote or co-wrote hits for John Denver, Emmylou Harris and Doug and the Slugs.

Career overview

Danoff and his then-wife, Taffy Nivert, wrote "I Guess He'd Rather Be in Colorado" and "Take Me Home, Country Roads," both of which were hits for John Denver. The latter song is the "de facto" state song of West Virginia, although it has no official status as such (and was written in a house in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C.). Denver recorded about a dozen Danoff compositions from 1972 through the end of his career.

On the strength of their track record as songwriters, Danoff and Nivert recorded several albums before forming a group called the Starland Vocal Band. It was this group which recorded "Afternoon Delight", a #1 hit in 1976. On July 4th, 1976 (the American bicentennial) "Afternoon Delight" was the number one hit on Billboard's Top One Hundred. Starland replaced "Rhoda" with a half hour weekly series that same summer. Danoff and Nivert were responsible for putting director Robert Altman and producer Jerry Weintraub together for the film "Nashville" and were slated to perform in the roles eventually filled by Kristoferson/Coolidge.

Danoff also worked with Emmylou Harris co-authoring "Boulder to Birmingham" (one of Harris' better known compositions) with her. This track was recorded by The Hollies in 1976, and became a top 10 hit in New Zealand. In 1982, Danoff and fellow Starland Vocal Band member Jon Carroll wrote "Who Knows How To Make Love Stay", a top 40 Canadian hit for Vancouver pop/rock band Doug and the Slugs.

Bill Danoff is a graduate of Cathedral High School in Springfield, Massachusetts, and of Georgetown University. In 1976, at the height of Starland Vocal Band's and John Denver's popularity, they met with current Cathedral High students and appeared together (Starland Vocal Band opened for John Denver and they later performed together) that night at a sold out concert at the Springfield Civic Center.

In the Fall of 2007 Bill will teach a songwriters course at his alma mater, Georgetown University

External links

* [http://www.billdanoff.com/ Official website]