This, That, and the Other

For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday theme, Jim Adams has given us “funk” music. Funk music is a style of dance music that evolved from the Black R&B, soul, and jazz scenes in the mid-1960s. It is characterized by funky, syncopated bass lines and steady, infectious drum grooves, which drove it to become one of the most popular genres in the 1970s and ’80s.

The song I’m featuring is “Play That Funky Music” by the band Wild Cherry.

“Play That Funky Music” was written by Rob Parissi and recorded by the band Wild Cherry. The single was the first released in April 1976 and hit number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September. It was also number 1 on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart. The single was certified platinum by the Recordings Industry Association of America for shipments of over 2 million records and eventually sold 2.5 million in the U.S. alone. The song was listed at number 93 on Billboard “All-Time Top 100 Songs” in 2018. It was also the Wild Cherry’s only U.S. Top 40 song.

Wild Cherry was a hard rock band. They had a regular gig at a club on the north side of Pittsburgh that catered to a predominantly black audience. Disco music was coming on strong at the time and the band’s hard rock sound didn’t go over well. After one show, a black audience member shouted, “Play some funky music, white boy.” Parissi decided they should, and wrote down the phrase on a bar order pad. His lyrics literally described the predicament of a hard rock band adjusting to the disco era. The band recorded the song in Cleveland with a disco sound: drum and bass mixed way up front.

I remember this song when it was out, and always assumed that the band was made up of black musicians. It wasn’t until I was researching this song for this SLS prompt and watched the video that I realized they were white.

Rob Parissi got the idea for the group’s name from a box of cough drops he saw when he was in the hospital.

Here are the lyrics to “Play That Funky Music.”

Hey do it now
Yeah hey

Hey once I was a boogie singer
Playin' in a rock and roll band
I never had no problems yeah 
Burnin' down one night stands
And everything around me, yeah
Got to stop to feelin' so low 
And I decided quickly, yes I did
To disco down and check out the show
Yeah they was

Dancin' and singin' and movin' to the groovin'
And just when it hit me somebody turned around and shouted
Play that funky music white boy
Play that funky music right
Play that funky music white boy
Lay down that boogie and play that funky music 'til you die
'Til you die, yeah, oh 'til you die

Gonna play that electrified funky music, yeah

Hey wait a minute 
Now first it wasn't easy
Changin' rock and roll and minds
And things were getting shaky
I thought I'd have to leave it behind
But now it's so much better (it's so much better)
I'm funking out in every way
But I'll never lose that feelin' (no I won't)
Of how I learned my lesson that day

When they were
Dancin' and singin' and movin' to the groovin'
And just when it hit me somebody turned around and shouted
Play that funky music white boy
Play that funky music right
Play that funky music white boy
Lay down that boogie and play that funky music 'til you die
'Til you die, yeah, oh 'til you die

They shouted play that funky music
Play that funky music
Play that funky music
Gotta keep on playin' funky music
Play that funky music
Play that funky music
Play