Expert: Bong Santos - 9/14/2006

Question
What artist recorded "Play that Funky Music, White Boy"? I'm not sure that's the real titile though.

Thank you!

Answer
Dear Diane,

PLAY THAT FUNKY MUSIC, written by WILD CHERRY's ROB PARISSI, has been remade a number of times but 3 versions of the song has hit the Billboard Hot 100 Charts and are therefore the most successful versions.
The original was done by WILD CHERRY for their self-titled debut album in 1976. It spent 3 weeks at #1 on September 18, 1976.
An artist called ROXANNE had a #63 hit on April 6, 1988 and finally VANILLA ICE, out of his TO THE EXTREME album, hit #4 with his own rap version for which ROB PARISSI was awarded over $500,000.00 as settlement for a copyright infringement lawsuit he filed against VANILLA ICE after his name was not included as a songwriter on the single.

Maraming salamat po!

BONG M. SANTOS
Manila, Philippines