"Play That Funky Music" is a song written by Rob Parissi and recorded by the band Wild Cherry. The single was the first release by the Cleveland-based Sweet City record label in April 1976, and distributed by Epic Records. The performers on the recording included lead singer Parissi, electric guitarist Bryan Bassett, bassist Allen Wentz and drummer Ron Beitle, with session players Chuck Berginc, Jack Brndiar (trumpets), and Joe Eckert and Rick Singer (saxes) on the horn riff that runs throughout the song's verses. The single hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 18, 1976, and was also number one on the Hot Soul Singles chart. The single was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipments of over 2 million records, eventually selling 2.5 million in the United States alone.
The song was listed at No. 73 on Billboard magazine's "All-Time Top 100 Songs" in 2008. It was also the group's only U.S. Top 40 song.
Video Play That Funky Music
Chart performance
Maps Play That Funky Music
Vanilla Ice version
American rapper Vanilla Ice later released a song featuring an interpretation of "Play That Funky Music". Based on this single, the independent record label Ichiban Records signed Vanilla Ice to a record deal, releasing the album Hooked in January 1989, containing "Play That Funky Music" and its B-side, "Ice Ice Baby".
Songwriter Robert Parissi was not credited. Parissi was later awarded $500,000 in a copyright infringement lawsuit.
Although it did not initially catch on, its B-side, "Ice Ice Baby", gained more success when a disc jockey played that track instead of the single's A-side.
Following the success of "Ice Ice Baby", "Play That Funky Music" was reissued as its own single (with new lyrics), and peaked at no. 4 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and no. 10 in the UK.
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Other cover versions
- Canadian saxophonist Warren Hill covered the song on his 2005 album PopJazz.
- There is an edited version of "Play That Funky Music" without "white boy" that was released for radio airplay around the Boston area, as the original version was briefly banned in that area upon its original release. Instead of "white boy," the words, "hey, funky music" were substituted (Epic cat# AE7 1107). That version is now a collector's item.
- In 1988, the band Roxanne reached number 63 on the Billboard Hot 100 with a cover version.
Usage in other media
The song appears on the soundtrack of the film Evolution (2001) and on the open show "Ces Gars-Là", a French-Canadian show on V Télé featuring the stand-up comic Sugar Sammy and Simon-Olivier Fecteau.
See also
- List of Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles of 1976
- List of Cash Box Top 100 number-one singles of 1976
- List of number-one R&B singles of 1976 (U.S.)
References
Source of article : Wikipedia
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