When I worked in a grocery store after school, I had a co-worker named Brian who had a stupidly overpowered stereo in his Dodge Cricket. You could hear him coming a block before he pulled into the employee parking lot behind the store. For a full two months in the fall of 1980, there was a 90% chance the song he was listening to was Ah! Leah! from Donnie Iris.
Iris–who’s 82 and still performing–was a veteran of a couple of other bands: The Jaggerz (remember The Rapper from 1970?) and Wild Cherry (yes, the Play That Funky Music band). In 1980, he put out a solo album entitled Back on the Streets which was a wonderful slice of power-pop and power chords.
To this day when I hear this song, I have an urge to go fill the dairy case.
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