“Play That Funky Music” by Wild Cherry (1976)

~ ~

Wild Cherry was a hard rock band. They had a regular gig at the 2001 Club, and with disco big at the time, their sound didn't go over well. After one show, an audience member shouted, "Play some funky music, white boy." Wild Cherry frontman Rob Parissi decided they should, and wrote down the phrase on a bar order pad. They recorded it in Cleveland with a disco sound: drum and bass mixed way up front. The band was concerned about the lyrics, but Parissi insisted on keeping them.

Rob Parissi (lead vocals and guitar) was raised in the steel mill town of Mingo Junction, Ohio. He graduated from Mingo High School in 1968, and formed the band Wild Cherry in 1970 in Steubenville, Ohio. The band's name 'Wild Cherry' was taken from a box of cough drops. The band played the Ohio Valley region, the Northern West Virginia panhandle, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The original lineup included Ben Difabbio (drums and ...