Artists & Bands

Wild Cherry tunes

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One-hit funky wonders!

Rob Parissi formed his rock band, Wild Cherry, in Ohio during the early ’70s.

Releasing albums on their own label and changing members as they went along, they eventually signed with Brown Bag Records and started dropping singles in 1973.

When none of the tunes caught on, the band dissolved, only to reform again in 1975, with only Parissi still on board.

By now, disco was happening and rock music wasn’t. After being constantly asked to play more dance music instead of rock, one of the band members recalled that an audience member had said, “Are you white boys gonna play some funky music?”

This line (and possibly hearing Superstition on the radio) got Rob working on what eventually would become the tune that would define the band and enable Parissi to retire.

After recording Play That Funky Music, they contacted Epic/CBS, who signed them based on this being the lead single of their major label debut.

As Play That Funky Music hit #1 in the U.S., selling 2.5 million copies in the process, Wild Cherry became famous.

The self-titled album, which also contained Nowhere To Run (Martha and the Vandellas), sold 1 million copies.

In my humble opinion, the band’s legacy isn’t down to that one tune charting in the mid-’70s, but how that one tune has been played by every covers band since.

No other singles came from the album or any of the follow-up albums, Electrified Funk (1976), I Love My Music (1978), and Only the Wild Survive (1979).

After just shy of a decade, the band dissolved (again), and Rob Parissi retired to play instrumental jazz, drive sports cars, and go fishing on his boat in Florida.