America’s 250th has unleashed flashbacks to the Bicentennial, a buildup to July 4, 1976, awash in corporate patriotic branding, a flood of variety specials and a very memorable version of Schoolhouse Rock.

Less expected was the pop/folk song that became the soundtrack to that summer 50 years ago, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts just after Independence Day: The Starland Vocal Band’s “Afternoon Delight.” It would prove to be the only hit from the group, made up of Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert and Jon Caroll and Margot Chapman.

It’s been featured in the years since — humorously — in movies like Anchorman and on shows like The Simpsons, but it is best known for its lyrics which, despite its invocation of patriotic “skyrockets in flight,” largely has a sexual meaning: Gonna find my baby, gonna hold her tight / Gonna grab some afternoon delight.

Danoff wrote the song, and already had achieved a degree of fame: He and then-wife Nivert, along with John Denver, wrote “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” which in 1971 became one of Denver’s biggest hits. It’s lately had a resurgence for fans of Team USA in the FIFA World Cup.

Danoff told the Washington Post in 2011 that title “Afternoon Delight” came from the name of a menu at Clyde’s of Georgetown, where he and Nivert sometimes performed. He told the Post, which chronicled the making of the song, “Lines and metaphors just started coming. I don’t know where ‘skyrockets in flight’ came from — maybe a comic book. My songwriting process isn’t linear.”

The song was released as part of the band’s eponymous debut album and released as a single months earlier, but it seemed to land at the right moment, in a summer of celebration. “Afternoon Delight” is of its time, the sunnier side of the ’70s. Despite its innuendo of a nooner, it got endless radio airplay, was covered by aspiring singers throughout the year (including one who opened for Bob Hope at the Minnesota State Fair), and the Starland Vocal Band even performed at Oral Roberts University, Danoff told the Post.

The band won best new artist at the Grammys the following year, and “Afternoon Delight” was nominated for song of the year and record of the year. That summer, it headlined its own CBS variety show — short-lived, as it turned out, but featuring regulars who included David Letterman. The first episode was partially shot in Georgetown, not too far from where “Afternoon Delight” got its start.