The Essential Guide to Classic Funk: Tracks, Artists, Dance Steps, and Trivia
By 1975, the musical landscape had shifted underneath traditional rock outfits. In Steubenville, Ohio, guitarist Rob Parissi led Wild Cherry, a hard-working club band playing straightforward covers to dwindling crowds. Audiences wanted disco and R&B, shouting demands at the stage to abandon traditional rock for danceable tracks.
Frustrated but sharp-eared, Parissi wrote "Play That Funky Music" on a backstage order pad. The song merged a hard-rock guitar bite with a relentless, dance-floor-ready groove. When Epic Records released the track in 1976, it exploded, climbing to number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Soul charts, an astonishing crossover achievement for an unknown Midwestern group.
The Rob Parissi funk rock rhythm relied on a razor-sharp single-note guitar riff that locked directly into Allen Wentz’s bassline. Instead of wandering, the rhythm section stayed locked in tight synchronization. However, massive commercial success invited legal scrutiny. Wild Cherry faced years of legal action over publishing splits and songwriting royalties, demonstrating how rapid commercial windfalls in the 1970s often outpaced initial copyright paperwork.
