Play That Funky Music

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"Play That Funky Music" (also known as "Play That Funky Music, White Boy") is an iconic funk song written by Robert Parissi and recorded by the rock band Wild Cherry. The song hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 18, 1976. It was also the basis of a top five U.S. hit for Vanilla Ice in 1990.

The song was inspired by a black audience member who shouted, "Play some funky music, white boy" while they were playing at the 2001 Club. Lead singer Robert Parissi decided they should, and wrote down the phrase on a bar order pad. They later recorded it in Cleveland with a Disco sound. Although the band was concerned about the lyrics, Parissi insisted on keeping them.

Originally, it was planned that the song should be released on the B-side of Wild Cherry's cover of the Commodores' "I Feel Sanctified;" however, when the owners of their record label heard the song, they suggested that the B-side become the A-side. The song sold over 2 million copies, but was Wild Cherry's only hit.

Vanilla Ice later released a cover of "Play That Funky Music", although ironically, it was the B-side of that release, "Ice Ice Baby", that catapulted him to stardom. Vanilla Ice did not credit Parissi for the piece, leading to a lawsuit that ended in a large settlement for Parissi. Vanilla Ice's version hit #4 in the US, and was his second and last hit song.

A tribute version of the song was arranged and recorded by Gordon Goodwin and his Big Phat Band on their 2006 record The Phat Pack. A spoken word version of the song, deliberately done in an unflattering manner, was used in the early 1990s in a Pioneer Electronics commercial for their automobile audio products.

[edit] Trivia

• On file-sharing networks, "Play That Funky Music" is often mistakenly attributed to James Brown or KC and the Sunshine Band (though KC did in fact do a cover version.)
• The song has become a sort of theme song for professional golfer Fred Funk, a fan favorite on the PGA Tour.
• This song was featured on Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2.
• In 1997, This song was used in a commerical for the Intel Pentium Pro MMX featuring a disco scene in a white room with clean suits. The lyrics were truncated to "Play that Funky Music" despite the white clean suits worn by the dancing processor technicians.

Preceded by "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty" by KC and the Sunshine Band

Billboard Hot 100 number one single September 18, 1976

Succeeded by "A Fifth of Beethoven" by Walter Murphy and the Big Apple Band