The Story Behind the All-Request 1976 One-Hit Wonder “Play That Funky Music”

Song requests are the worst, right? Almost always, they are selfish dalliances. One person thinks that he or she knows better than the person spinning songs or playing them on stage. One person thinks that he or she has just the answer for what the room needs.

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DJs, road trip car drivers, radio personalities, and bands—they know. Song requests are the worst—well, until they’re not. Sometimes a request can actually lead to something mind-bending and life-changing. Indeed, this is behind the all-request 1976 one-hit wonder “Play That Funky Music”.

The Request

The 1970s were a strange time. So much was changing—the rock music that the 1960s and the earlier part of the 1970s had made so famous was morphing into something else. Suddenly, disco was taking over. And the hard rock cover band Wild Cherry was having a tough time of it.

But then one unassuming day, that all shifted. The band was playing at a predominantly Black club in north Pittsburgh when someone there approached drummer Ron Beitle and asked, “Are you going to play some funky music, white boys?”

Huh? What? A request?! Normally, this would be annoying beyond belief. But not this time. Boom! Sometimes when a light bulb goes off, it really goes off. In that flash, Wild Cherry singer Rob Parissi picked up a pad and pen and wrote the loquacious song in a few minutes.

Write What You Know

In the end, the subject of the track is very familiar. It’s about a rock group struggling with the new wave of disco. Parissi sings about being in a band as club patrons all want to shake their butts and disco. Their dancing has pushed him out of the traditional clubs and into unknown territory.

But then, Parissi continues in the verses, someone tapped him on his shoulder and requested something funky. So, he and Wild Cherry obliged. Indeed, the song is quite meta in this way. Here, the band and the Pittsburgh patron were in a place together, looking for something else. And they found it!

Success at Last!

Not only was Wild Cherry (eventually) able to play something funky as requested (and ditch the covers), but the band found tremendous success with the track. It raced up the Billboard charts and peaked at the top spot, hitting No. 1 in September of 1976.

The single also sold more than 2.5 million copies in the United States, proving songs that bridge genres, races, and club audiences can succeed in the world, then and now.

Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images