Wild Cherry

Steubenville, Ohio 1970-80
Wild Cherry started as a straight rock band, playing Ohio style melodic hard rock with proto power pop influences. They cut a couple records on their own, before getting signed to Terry Knight's Brown Bag label. These records did not have much impact, and the band broke up for a while. In 1975 or thereabouts original Wild Cherry leader Rob Parissi recruited some musicians from the Pittsburgh area, and started a new Wild Cherry. This band tried to crack the rock clubs, but in the time since the original band's breakup, musical tastes, and clubs, were changing to more dance music. Parissi wrote a song from experience called "Play that Funky Music", and in doing so, the band followed their lead and became a funk/disco/dance band.