“Play That Funky Music” is Wild Cherry’s first and only international top 10 hit, and their signature song. It topped the US Pop Chart in September of 1976. In 2018, Billboard named it one of the greatest songs of all time.

The performers on the classic recording included the members of the band at the time: lead singer Parissi, guitarist Bryan Bassett, bassist Allen Wentz, and drummer Ron Beitle, with session horn players Chuck Berginc, Jack Brndiar, Joe Eckert, and Rick Singer hired to play the horn riff that runs throughout the track’s verses.

Parissi said he often wrote songs in a similar style as a song he’d pick out from each new week of the Top 40. After writing songs in this manner for some time, one of the songs he wrote was “Play That Funky Music”. The song that served as inspiration for the hit was “Fire” by Ohio Players, which features a similar bass line and rhythm guitar part. The main lyric was inspired by an audience member shouting “Play some funky music, white boy” during the band’s hard rock set at a disco club.

Originally, it was planned that “Play That Funky Music” should be released on the B-side of Wild Cherry’s cover of the Commodores' “I Feel Sanctified”; however, when the owners of Sweet City Records heard the song, they suggested that the B-side become the A-side.

Artists who sampled the classic include Vanilla Ice and White Boys.