Originally Posted by rayc
If "Sky rockets in flight, afternoon delight" and "...but I've never been to me." can gracelessly ride the charts
Gracelessly ride the charts? That song was an earworm! I personally found it cloying and annoying, but an earworm nonetheless.

As for lyrics, what do you expect from a pop song?

It was a huge hit, and got five Grammy nominations and two awards. The writer had already written “Take Me Home Country Roads”. It was produced by Milt Okun, engineered by Phil Ramone. Milt said:

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They were very, very good singers. . . . But this song was a particularly hard one to do. It was more complex and musically difficult than most folk arrangements. It was the closest thing to Bach that I’d ever done.

But to your point about the record business, although the writer continues to collect publishing money:
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Starland Vocal Band got one check in the spring of 1977. That was it. We received a check for $66,000 that we split four ways and have never seen another penny. . . . We signed a generic contract with Windsong Records, John Denver’s label, and the deal was never renegotiated when everybody else made such a big piece off it. That wasn’t kind. But you can’t take unkind to court.

https://medium.com/david-connell/i-read-about-starland-vocal-band-so-you-dont-have-to-d2d1d087b805

-- David Cuny
My virtual singer development blog

Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?