The Afternoon Delights were a Boston-based vocal

studio A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design ...

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, including Rebecca Hall, Janet Powell, Robalee Barnes, and Suzanne Boucher.

Career

In 1981, the Afternoon Delights released the novelty song "General Hospi-Tale" that lyrically summarized some of the plot developments on the

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soap opera ''

General Hospital ''General Hospital'' (often abbreviated as ''GH'') is an American daytime television soap opera. It is listed in ''Guinness World Records'' as the list of longest-running television shows by category, longest-running American soap opera in pro ...

''. The song was co-written by Harry King (who also produced) and Lisa "Lips" Tedesco, a soap updater for Medford-based station

Kiss 108 WXKS-FM (107.9 FM), branded as ''Kiss 108'', is a commercial top 40/CHR radio station licensed to serve Medford, Massachusetts, and covering Greater Boston. Owned by iHeartMedia, the WXKS-FM studios are in Medford and the transmitter sits ato ...

. Hall sang the lead vocal, including the spoken word portion at the end talking about her "addiction", noting "I just can't cope/without my soap!" Musically, meanwhile, the track was very reminiscent of Blondie's recent hit " Rapture (Blondie song)". "General Hospi-Tale" peaked at number 23 on Billboard's Hot Soul Singles chart and number 33 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100

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. Despite its modest chart placings, "General Hospi-Tale" (the single) sold 850,000 7-inch singles and 250,000 12-inch copies. The group quickly released a follow-up single ("Dancing For Pennies", which was a non-novelty pop/R&B tune.) As well, an Afternoon Delights album also called ''General Hospi-Tale'' appeared, which aside from the title track was a straight pop/R&B release. These both failed to chart, and the group quickly disbanded. Hall later recorded some solo singles in the mid-1980s, and Barnes and Boucher both continued work as studio vocalists. The song was integrated into a movie, '' Young Doctors in Love'', which had a successful run on cable channels in the US and abroad. ''General Hospital'' revisited the group's single in an episode that aired on April 28, 2013, as part of the series' 50th anniversary.

References

Musical groups from Boston American girl groups {{US-band-stub