FIRST TIME HEARING WILD CHERRY- PLAY THAT FUNKY MUSIC (REACTION VIDEO) 

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This was when musicians took inspiration from each other without worrying about race or royalties! This was white and black combined, as it should be!

Back in those days everyone jammed to everyone's music and music was a lot more diverse and integrated than today.

The great thing about the Mid Night Special was that the bands played live. No soundtracks, no autotune, No Lip syncing. They played the instruments and actually sang the song. If you didn't have talent, you didn't go on the Mid Night Special.

That’s why people try to stay stuck in that era, BECAUSE it was fun.

True story: Wild Cherry was a rock band playong ckubs in Ohio. They were playing a club in Cleveland which had a predominantly black audience. In the mid 1970s, people of color preferred funk and disco over straight-up rock abd roll (and those styles were becoming more popular among all people). During the gig in Cleveland a member of the audience shouted to the band "play that funky music, white boy!" And it inspired the band to come up with this song. This song became an international hit and made it all the way to #1 on the billboard hot 100 in, i think 1976 or 77, if memory serves.

It was different back then...WE WERE ALL TOGETHER IN THE CLUBS....

This was my era of music. See everybody’s finally figuring out the 70’s and early 80’s music was REAL!! Enjoy watching y’all!

Music has no color,; so many talented musicians back in the day; it was pure raw talent

Man there was nothing like the 60s and 70s and 80s.Everyone got along together. Music music.

I'm 67 and remember very well when this song was released in 1976. When it first came out a lot of people thought it was a Black band. The hair, man we all had long hair (women included) and Afro's back then. It was a sign of the times.

Dont forget this was also the disco era, and the cheesy clothes went with the disco vibe

What I love about this song is it's basically a true story. They were a rock band, disco was taking over. They had to either get funky fast, or they were going to have to get jobs. Playing funk allowed them to score more gigs.

I am 61 a teenager in the fabulous disco 70s. I LOVE THIS SONG. I would put on my tight satin pants and satin jacket and go to the local disco roller skating place and have THE TIME OF MY LIFE, Good times

This singer is definitely a soul man.

I was 10 years old when this song came out and it was still an amazing song when I was a teenager and it still an amazing song 50 years later!

When I was a young kid my mom and I would JAM to this song in her little car, and always end up busting up laughing. This music is nothing but joy.

I'm from that era. I was 16 when this song came out. Can't wear my "angel wings" anymore...Aquanet hairspray killed my scalp. Now I wear wigs. I'm 60 now. Back can no longer tolerate wearing platform shoes and can't find a decent pair of bellbottoms to save my life. But I still jam to this tune. Back in those days, music brought us together. No one gave a damned about skin color. They were good times. Completely opposite of today. Now let me go get my wide comb for my back pocket and find my lip gloss and gtfo outta here! Thanks for the flashback!

The lady introducing Wild Cherry was singer Helen Reddy, who passed about a week ago. :(

Back in the day if you were in the club and this song came on....you were dancing.😎

No matter what genre comes or goes... Funk will always revive itself! No help needed!😁☝🔥💯

Wild Cherry released this in 1976 at the beginning of the disco disaster. The hairy chest and gold chains was the guido look with Afro and bell bottoms. Big hair, eyeliner and spandex was the 80’s. That was rock/pop era. Then early 90s was torn clothes and long unkept hair... grunge era. Honestly .... the 80’s rocked. I loved the make up and clothes, hairspray forever. Best part is since we dressed like that the girls and guys could share. LOL🤟🏻

You should do some K.C. and the Sunshine Band. They had some funky bangers back in the day.

Little known fact....Wild Cherry was a struggling hard rock band until a brotha from the audience yelled "Why don't you play some funky music white boy!" 3 days later....they reinvented themselves.

This is some straight-up soulful "Stank-Face" FUNK from the 70's!!! When this song came out back in the day and wherever it was played, the dance floors got packed at the clubs, discos, wedding receptions, high school dances, block parties, house parties, cookouts, picnics, etc...and I'm talking about all races, all skin colors, nationalities & ethnicities would just "JAM" to this "BANGER!!!" You heard that thump? That was my Mic Drop!!!

Men wearing eyeliner and makeup was more dominant in 80s more than any era...gotta love those cool ass horn guys lol

Do you guys realize we tore the floor all to pieces listening to this music? I used to have to ice my knees after every party I went to.

You'll never get that funky riff out of your heads, it's been in mine for over 30 years

"Taco meat, the chain was the cheese"- I'm done. I'm outta my seat and on the floor, I'm tappin out 😂

Earth Wind and Fire Let's Groove Tonight and The Commodores Brick House a couple great hits from back then.

This funky song from 1976 when rock started losing to disco funk & Wild Cherry was a r&r band & looking to get into the popular disco music 😻 They did it with this funky tune that drove people crazy & filled the dance floors when this was played by the dj !! Wasn’t a black or white thing it was a disco funk thing 🥰 people couldn’t stand still & everyone would be singing ! Fun, fun, fun & this would be played at clubs, parties & bbq’s & roller rinks 💋☮️💃🕺🎸🎺🥁🎷🤣

If you close your eyes, you can sometimes imagine Rick James is singing this.

They sound really good live. You don't hear that much these days.

This was an extraordinary live version. Just about spot on.

I remember having my mind blown when I found out the lead singer of wild cherry was a white man

I developed and changed a lot since the 70s. Except i'm still wearing Levis 501

This is only THREE YEARS LATE .. but I'm 68 years old. I remember when this song was released, I remember watching this show on TV and as for hair, back then I was a LONG HAIR hippie, hair halfway down my back. After retiring I thought, heck, I'd like to have rock & roll hair one more time so I let it grow and for about the last 15 years I've once again had hair halfway down my back.

I was in a band in the 70's and we made up a song that started off as kind of a spoof of this one, with a deliberately slightly awkward funk rhythm. We were from one state to the west of Wild Cherry. Just having fun. We played it once to a live audience and all the black folks started dancing anyway.

If y'all like this then y'all gonna love DR. JOHN - RIGHT PLACE WRONG TIME it has real New Orleans funk

By the way, this was not punk rock, not even close!

"...after you die. Your neighbors have to come and cut the music off" That's how I wanna go out!

Y'all's smiles are SO contagious!!

Gotta get up and BUMP when this song comes on !!!❤️❤️❤️

This was great, brought back so many memories.. 1976 those were the days.. You guys are awesome.. I had to subscribe... 💯😄💖

Fun fact, I chose this song for the first dance at my wedding.

i was 3 months old when this came out. i'm 45 now and it's still kickass, groovy, funk with that axe meltin solo \m/

Brian May , the guitarist from Queen, still has the same hairstyle... it’s just now masses of long white curls instead of long brown curls. (I only name him because none of my relatives still pop those 70s styles)

Takin' me back to my high school days! Never missed Midnight Special on Friday nights. The chains with the chest hair never did it for me, yuk! I'm 62 now and it still disgusts me 😝

Wild Cherry was a hard rock cover band, but with the advent and popularity of the disco era, it began to be difficult to get bookings because audiences wanted to dance. The performers on the recording included lead singer Rob Parissi, electric guitarist Bryan Bassett, bassist Allen Wentz, and drummer Ron Beitle, with session players Chuck Berginc, Jack Brndiar (trumpets), and Joe Eckert and Rick Singer (saxes) on the horn riff that runs throughout the song's verses. The single hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 18, 1976; it was also No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart. The single was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipments of over 2 million records and eventually sold 2.5 million in the United States alone. Parissi told the band that if they wanted to get bookings, they were going to have to start to include dance tunes in their sets, but the band resisted becoming a disco band. While playing at the 2001 Club on the North Side of Pittsburgh to a predominantly black audience, a patron said to band member (drummer) Beitle during a break, "Are you going to play some funky music, white boys?" Parissi grabbed a pen and order pad and wrote the song in about five minutes. The lyrics literally describe the predicament of a hard rock band adjusting to the disco era.

Hey Half & Jai, those of us who sported 'The Hair' back then... well, tough to sport it now when you only got 1/4 to 1/3 of it left. :-)

“While My Guitar Gently Weeps” with Prince, Tom Petty

This was the days of great rock an roll.❤ Still listen to it.

Loved these guys from teenage years, I'm 57 and love classic rock

Check out “What You Won’t Do For Love” by Bobby Caldwell. Most people didn’t realize he was white....

That's the tail end of Woodstock days and there's lots of great tunes from that era. T-Rex , Bang a Gong is another hit. I don't know many guys still rocking the hairstyle. Most of them by now are bald and can't. I have one friend who still can. He still plays drums every chance he gets. 😂

My headstone shall read: “She laid down that boogie and played that funky music til she died”!

Had a close friend throughout high school and ever since. The white boy had the biggest fro I've ever seen. Said he could hide 20 J's in it. Saw him recently after being away for almost 30 years. My man's head looks like a bowling ball now. 😂

'70s, the decade that fashion forgot!

Hey, the were stylin' back in the day. Just remember, all these band members are now in their sixties and seventies. Grandpas!

Hell'a Fun, I seen one of their first Shows at Wheeling Park Saturday night dances; IT WAS WILD and they went National not long after that

It’s nice to see a couple having so much fun together!

❤❤❤❤ SUCH a GREAT song !! Every1 has heard it, in a movie or somewhere, but No One knows the band !! Lol

Love this song was 15 when it came out, should have seen my dance moves... killed it!

Our regular hangout was a club attached to a bowling alley in Rosemount MN back in the early '90's. Shout out to my City Limits crew!!! We'd all be doin' what we did. Drinkin', Shootin' pool, bowlin', and dancin'. The DJ would put this song on and everybody, I mean everybody, would stop what they were doing and start shakin' it. I'm talking people on the dance floor, bowlers, pool players, bartenders waitresses, bouncers, people in the restrooms, even people sitting at tables. And, if you weren't a regular we would help get you started. It became a regular thing at this place. Every Friday and Saturday night at the same time every time. One whole place of Dancin' Fools!!! It was a sight to see!!! I miss those days.

try "dance to the music" by Sly and the Family Stone

Yes my younger sister has the same fricken hair style for the last 40 yrs I should send you pics but she would be so pissed

In the mid '70's Disco came out of Motown R&B and funk. A Disco was a dance club with a DJ who played (vinyl) LP and single hits on a turntable. The roots of Disco is in the name. A Discotheque was a retail record store with sales racks full of LP's and singles as well as isolated glass front booths with doors, all equipped with headphones for the customers including intervals along the record racks. You could request the store owner to put on your fave track or album and one or more people could listen along to the same tune if they wanted. Customers would dance while they listened and flipped through the record selections in the racks. It was a place to meet and hook up with friends or a lover and have a bop while you shop. The idea just grew out of the store into newly established recorded music and DJ clubs meant strictly for dancing as more and more people caught onto the craze.

This song was everywhere back in the day. Everyone singing it in the clubs 😎

I'm having this played at my funeral. I couldn't count how many times I danced to this in the 70s.

Been waiting for you to do Ram Jam’s “Black Betty”!

I love this and I'm almost 70. I love so many kinds of music back from 60s on up. I don't know about today's music. I love to dance since I was a kid. It's nice to see you having fun!

That's one of the best songs ever My goodness how can anybody not Jam to that song damn it!❤😂

He's lucky that horn didn't go flying into the crowd

Hard not to like this performance. Also, that Ike & Tina reference was funky fresh.

i'm 56 and have a feather cut with part in the middle since 1980. 40 years and still rocking the feather cut.

I was 5 when this song came out and it was a huge hit. I remember my parents' jamming to it. My dad had a HUGE afro in this era until he died in 1983. He kept it tight like a crew cut in the 60s and in the 70s my mum talked him into growing it out to full fro. He used a pick and everything super curly hair. Type 4c or whatever.

LOVED this song when it first came out. I was in high school. And even though this was definitely not her kind of music, my Mom even loved it. Great reaction!

YOU GUYS ARE MY FAVORITE

My husband used to get his hair permed all the time to have a fro. He's gone now but I remember him so well with this music we danced to every weekend.

The Disco Era (Mid-To-Late 70s and Early 80s) - great time for music! Boogie = Dancing and Getting Down

*”First time hearing #1 Billboard songs”* Yeah... Sure, buddy. 😂

Check out KC and the Sunshine Band "I'm Your Boogie Man"...

Music is described as a rhyme in time. One can love any music regardless of their background. In a similar way we can love, respect, and support one another as well. When times get tough...DANCE! I love me some motown. Lionel Richie, Smokey Robinson, Clarence Carter. Peace!

About a year or so ago the lead singer's hometown of Steubenville Ohio honored him and his career.

Got an uncle who's been rockin' a Rod Stewart hairdo since the 80's. Also, if you guys do a Halloween Ike and Tina you gotta do a react in costume :)

WE ARE THE WORLD....back when singers care about more than themselves.

Play that funky music “white boy” Been loving this for 30 years or more

OMG My great-uncle has never changed his hair style. I wish I could attach a picture from when he was a young man, and him now! He used to have long curly RED hair (the only person in my family that is a redhead) but even now at 67, his hair is thinning and it's white... but it's still long and curly. Just getting a little scarce on the top of his head. LOL Gotta love him.

Man, I was a kid back then and I still can't approve of what that keyboardist was wearing. I guess that's why fashions change. The young uns start hating on what everyone else is wearing.

The white man perm phase lasted too damn long as well.

You know why that is? They have good memories of the 1970's, those huge Caddys that rode like a boat on the ocean, huge 'fro's worn by everyone, bright Polyesther suits, mostly good times. Everyone watched the same movies, listened to the same music, not 500 channels and a million subreddits like now.

Fun fact: the song was about what they were going through at the time like ‘burning down the one night stands’ meant that it was getting scarce playing rock after more and more rock clubs were closing down and after more and more discos were opening and so they had do start learning disco and after one of their performances they were approached by these black men and they jokingly asked something like “are you white boys gonna play some funky music” or something like that so he tried to find a way to fit in and make something of rock meets disco and so after making the song he took it to a bunch of record labels but got repeatedly turned down because of the certain lyric “play that funky music white boy” and 5-6 weeks after it was released it became a hit

guys check out vanilla ice's version of "play that funky music" too!

Not punk rock....Punk Rock would be The Sex Pistols or the Ramones.

This was played by cover bands, then DJs, at weddings to get the PARTY started.

I'm 57 and i remember this song when it came out in 1976. Great number

Now it's time for y'all to react to some queen live start with somebody to love live in montreal 1981 or fat bottomed girls live at the bowel can't wrong with either one

What the keyboard player was wearing used to be called in those years a "JUMPSUIT" I do remember in early 70's...YEAH FUNKY! ...lol

Man, I've never seen this Midnight Special episode on RU-vid until now. I do remember, as a kid, seeing this live at the time. I loved this band. Still do.

I remember watching this performance live and being mesmerized by the trumpet player spinning his trumpet. I was a trumpet player in the school band at the time and I just thought it was the coolest thing. Nothing like some old school music. It was just fun.