Wild Cherry

Wild Cherry was an American funk rock band formed in the Mid-Ohio Valley in the early 1970s, best remembered for their 1976 single «Play That Funky Music», one of the defining crossover hits of the disco and funk era. The band began as a bar-circuit rock outfit before pivoting toward funk after audiences reportedly pushed them to play more danceable material, a shift that became the basis for the song's famous lyric.

«Play That Funky Music» topped the charts and became a fixture of funk and disco playlists for decades, blending punchy horn-driven arrangements, syncopated rhythm guitar, and a white rock band's take on Black American funk traditions, a combination that made the song and the band's sound instantly recognizable. The record's success placed Wild Cherry alongside other white funk-rock acts of the mid-1970s who helped bring funk grooves into mainstream rock radio.

Beyond their signature hit, the band released additional material such as «Baby Don’t You Know» and «If You Want My Love», though none matched the commercial impact of their breakout single. Wild Cherry's legacy rests largely on that one song, which has been widely sampled, covered, and referenced in popular culture ever since its release, cementing the band's place as a one-hit-wonder success story with an outsized influence on funk's pop crossover.