Play That Funky Music (was: Market Research)

[Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com>]

JJ wrote---
>At WRKO The Big 68, I do recall playing the regular <uncensored.....never
>knew that one existed> version.

There was an edit, but I don't think the intention was to censor it.  The
original was over 5 minutes long, and they did the old top 40 trick of
shortening it big-time, by cutting an entire verse out.

However, I do recall some stations that were told not to say "Play That
Funky Music White Boy"-- which was the original title.  The edited copy
just said "Play that Funky Music".  Reason-- back then, there had been a
number of cities with racial tension, and I gather that some PDs were
worried about the title sounding sarcastic and offending somebody.  Btw, I
got fired over that record-- I was working at Mercury/Phonogram (today
Polygam) Records as East Coast A&R Director, and Bob Parisi of Wild Cherry
brought me the demo tape of Play That Funky Music.  I knew it was a hit
from the first time I heard it, but when I brought it to my boss, he hated
the song and really got upset that I thought the group should be signed--
he said white people wouldn't like the song and black people would be
insulted by it.  Two weeks later, he fired me.  As you know, Wild Cherry
ended up signing with Epic and Associated labels, and the song went to #1.
(And the guy who fired me got fired about a year later...)  

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