The road to success is sometimes paved with narrow twists and turns and bumps some didn't expect along the way. For the band Wild Cherry, claiming their first No. 1 hit took a lot of turns and twists in getting there.
Formed in 1970 in the town of Steubenville, Ohio (also the home of the great Dean Martin as well as adult film star Traci Lords and ESPN SportsCenter anchor John Buccigross) by lead singer and guitarist Rob Parissi two years after graduating at nearby Mingo High School in Mingo Junction, Ohio, the band included a number of guys from Steubenville and East Springfield, Ohio, as well as Weirton, W.Va., in the upper needle of the state.
The band, which was given the name Wild Cherry by Parissi after looking at a box of cough drops he was taking while in the hospital for a short stay, made a name for itself in the Ohio Valley region as well as in northern West Virginia and nearby Pittsburgh. They released a number of singles for a record company they formed, including the song "You Can Get High (But Lay Low)."
Their hard work in touring paid off when they were signed by Terry Knight to his label, Brown Bag Records. Knight was the leader of a band called Terry Knight And The Pack, and ultimately, left the band for a managing career of the other guys in the group -- a group that would ultimately become Grand Funk Railroad.
The band got to record some more on Brown Bag Records and released songs like "Get Down" and "Show Me Your Badge," but nothing came from it. As a matter of fact, three years had gone by for Wild Cherry doing the local club circuit and signed to a record label to record singles with nothing coming from it. And though Parissi was the driving force, he started wondering if the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel was an oncoming train.
In the middle of trying to make it, Parissi walked away and ended Wild Cherry, getting into the steakhouse managing business, just to keep himself away from the music he was creating.
But the thought of the music industry was still marinating in Parissi's mind. Was his group still "raw?" And did he have any belief they were a "quality cut?" A year into the steakhouse managing business, Parissi was clamoring for another taste of the music business.
He was back aboard ... but had a big problem. At the end of his first stint with the band, he went so cold turkey about ever doing another gig or record that he sold his favorite guitar. He wanted it back -- even went to the record store to ask about it and they couldn't give him an answer as to where it went to. For months, he was searching out that guitar, then while he was least looking, he was in another record store one day and there it was -- his favorite guitar hanging on the wall. He recognized it immediately, asked the owner how much he wanted for the guitar, then was surprised when the owner answered back, "You can have it. I never really did like it anyway."
So Parissi, finding his guitar, went back to work in 1975 with the "new" Wild Cherry that consisted of him, Pittsburgh natives Bryan Bassett on guitar and Ron Beitle on drums and Detroit native Allen Wentz on synthesizers and bass guitar.
And the band went back on tour to promote their own music, which was still of the rock format at the time.
Enter fate. During the mid-1970s, the band began to be asked if they did more uptempo songs since disco music was becoming all the rave throughout the world, especially in the United States. Parissi was hesitant at first to do "dance" music, but one night at the 2001 Club in Pittsburgh, a group of African-American customers were sitting at a table near where the band was performing their normal routine. At that point, one man from the group asked the gys, "Are you white boys gonna play some funky music?" Parissi didn't think anything of it.
But one person who did become "aware" of what the fans were asking for was Beitle. It was right before a set a few nights later that Beitle uttered the words "Play that funky music, white boy." And the light bulb went on inside Parissi's head. Just five minutes before he went back on stage to perform the band's set, Parissi stopped at the bar and asked the waitress if he could borrow her pen. He grabbed a napkin and began to write the words to what would become the song, "Play That Funky Music."
Five minutes later, the song was complete, but the band didn't do anything with Parissi's piece until they got into a studio to record it. Studio engineer Ken Hamann was so blown away by what he had just heard, he got in contact with CBS/Epic Records affiliate Sweet City Records. The band was signed immediately, then the record company made it clear that they saw big-time potential in this new recording called "Play That Funky Music," featuring Parissi's now famous guitar opening (on the same guitar he once sold, then got back) and soulful voice that most everybody thought the lead singer was African-American.
The band had intended "Play That Funky Music" to be the B-side of a Commodores tune they were covering, but now were sitting on this pop and R&B gold mine that was about to burst into a major treasure for Parissi and his group.
The song made its Top 40 debut on July 31, 1976, at No. 34. and just marched forward from there: It rocketed to No. 22 the next week, then to No. 15 on August 14, then to No. 12, then into the Top 10 at No. 7 on August 28. From there, it jumped to No. 6, then No. 3 and on the week of September 18, 1976, it had landed as the No. 1 song in America, spending an impressive three weeks at the time.
There was more, though: Two weeks before hitting No. 1 on the pop chart, "Play That Funky Music" had already caught the fever as a soul smash and got to No. 1 on the R&B chart, spending two straight weeks there.
"Play That Funky Music" became a huge smash all over the world, hitting the Top 10 in over a dozen countries. And for generations, no one can hear this song without uttering those words that drummer Ron Beitle heard that night from those fans ... "play that funky music white boy."
The band was nominated for a pair of Grammy Awards and the song won an American Music Award honor for Best R&B Song. Session keyboardist Marc Avsec joined the band for good after playing on a couple of songs during the sessions for their self-titled debut album.
But for all the success of "Play That Funky Music" and a Top 5 self-titled debut, Wild Cherry never followed up properly on it. "Baby Don't You Know" missed the Top 40, peaking at No. 43 in 1977 and three other Hot 100 singles charted, but none higher than No. 61.
Near the end of the line for the band, a former member of a group called the Jaggerz from the Pittsburgh area named Donnie Iris joined. That would be on the band's 1979 album, "Only The Wild Survive." Ironically, Wild Cherry didn't survive. The group called it quits for good in 1979 and even more ironic, the most successful member of the band after the breakup was newcomer Iris, who teamed up with Avsec to form Donnie Iris & The Cruisers and score Top 40 hits in the early 1980s with "Ah! Leah!" "Love Is Like A Rock," and "My Girl."
Wentz moved to New York and became a writer and session musician, working with artists such as Roberta Flack, Cyndi Lauper and the late Luther Vandross. Bassett moved to Sanford, Fla., to become a record producer and engineer of blues music and occasionally toured with the bands Molly Hatchett and Foghat. Beitle got to work alongside numerous rock acts as a drummer over the years and these days, he's a drummer for Nied's Hotel Band in Lawrenceville, Pa.
As for Parissi, the man who wrote the famous words "play that funky music white boy," he got to live a Forest Gump-like existence in the music industry. He moved to Miami after Wild Cherry broke up in 1979 and went on tour with Bobby Caldwell of "What You Won't Do For Love" fame. After that, he moved to New York, where he got to work with up-and-coming star Billy Squier's band for the "Don't Say No" breakthrough album and worked as a guitarist and part-time producer on the comeback album for Gary "U.S." Bonds, "Dedication," which was co-produced by Bonds and two of his biggest fans, Bruce Springsteen and "Little" Steven Van Zandt. He earned a gold record for his work on that album when it sold over 500,000 copies in 1981.
Parissi continued to play local clubs in his native areas of Steubenville and in Pittsburgh and got to work for a short time as a morning disc jockey and a program director. He lives in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area these days, but every August 11, he is back in Mingo Junction to help raise funds for a scholarship endowment that goes to his now-consolidated high school, Indian Creek High. And he still writes and peforms music in the smooth jazz genre.
And if that's not enough, the longest street in his hometown of Mingo Junction, Ohio, is renamed in his honor. Not bad indeed.
Wild Cherry has not existed since 1979, but the band's one and only tune lives forever.
And it can thank some persistent club goers who were looking for the band to perform one uptempo tune.
Look at the gift they gave those fans. It came from that long, twisty, bumpy road trip they were taking to succeed.
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