Wild Cherry (CD - 1976)

Additional personnel includes: Chuck Berginc, Jack Brandiar, Joe Eckert, Rick Singer (horns); Mark Asvec (piano, synthesizer); Jerry Pollack (vibraphone); Tampa Lynn, Becky Goldstein (backround vocals).

Recorded at Cleveland Recording Company, Cleveland, Ohio. Includes liner notes by Bruno Bornio.

Personnel: Rob Parissi, Bryan Bassett (vocals, guitar); Allen Wentz (vocals, synthesizer); Ron Beitle (vocals, drums); Jack Brandiar, Joe Eckert (horns); Mark Avsec (piano, synthesizer); Jerry Pollack (vibraphone); Beck Goldstein, Tampa Lann (background vocals).

Audio Mixers: Kenneth Hamann; Rob Parissi; Carl Maduri III.

Recording information: Cleveland Recording Company, Cleveland, OH.

Arrangers: Rob Parissi; Wild Cherry.

The debut album from the foursome from Ohio. It featured the ferocious single "Play That Funky Music." Robert Parissi's animated vocals were complemented by the soulful chimes of the guitar, a smokin' bassline, and some hyped backing vocals. It peaked on the Billboard R&B and pop charts at number one. They received rave reviews considering that the band was all white conveying such a funky message. (The arrangement and lyrical phrasing are very similar to that of Stevie Wonder's "You Haven't Done Nothing" found on his Fulfillingness' First Finale album that was released two years prior.) No other singles came from this album. However, there were funk jams and smokin' numbers including remakes of "No Where to Run" and "99 1/2." Still, nothing compares to the featured single. ~ Craig Lytle

Wild Cherry gave up the funk as hard and nasty as just about any other '70s outfit you could name. The twist, as chronicled on this debut album's opening cut (the group's lone hit) "Play That Funky Music," is that the quartet was made up of guys with surnames like Wentz and Parissi--an unusual circumstance in those benighted, pre-Red Hot Chili Peppers days. Though some cuts are punctuated by a horn section, Wild Cherry mostly keeps its funk lean and mean, focusing on the rhythm section like any groove-based band should.

The central features of Wild Cherry's sound are Robert Parissi's lascivious, Rick James-like vocals and Allen Wentz's Bootsy/Larry Graham-derived bass style, a marvel of hard-hitting, thumb-slapping funk. Though things drift a bit off course with an ill-advised cover of the Motown classic "Nowhere To Run" and the obligatory ballad "Hold On," the hard-partying, heavy-grooving sound of "I Feel Sanctified" and "Don't Go Near The Water" sets things right. The album closes as it opened, with Parissi pledging Wild Cherry's allegiance to the funk, declaring the group's choice of Soul Train over Woodstock. minimize