Day 384: Wild Cherry – Wild Cherry

I was in the mood for a bit of Saturday night funk rock today, I wanted something fun and mindless. I figured that any album that starts with the song “Play That Funky Music” can’t really require too much thinking or consideration, so it’s time to listen to a bit of the ol’ Wild Cherry.

Album cover courtesy of Epic

Wild Cherry was formed in 1970 in a small steel town called Mingo Junction in Ohio. They were on the local gig circuit as a young  rock band when an audience member asked why they don’t do funk instead, so they decided to pivot from rock to a more funk-oriented sound. They released their self-titled debut in 1976 and immediately scored a hit with the single “Play That Funky Music”, which propelled their album to the top of the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. These guys are somewhat known as a one hit wonder, as they released three more albums but didn’t manage to match that level of success on any song thereafter.

No song on Wild Cherry really manages to top that one either – there’s a few decent ones, like Hold On and What in the Funk Do You See, and they’ve got pleasantly funky basslines, but that’s pretty much all I’ve got. It’s an album of completely middle-of-the-road tracks that are just fine to listen to, but you never really find yourself to be blown away. It’s not really funky enough or rock enough to be very interesting, it sits too much on the fence. But it’s fine, it’s by no means a bad album to listen to, but it could just use a bit more sauce.

I had an alright time with this one, and that’s really as much as I can say about it, I wouldn’t turn it off if it started playing but I also wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend it to a friend. I’m giving it a sensible 6.5/10.