https://suaragarut.id/en/donnie-iris-pittsburgh-rock-legacyDonnie Iris, the Pittsburgh-area singer whose powerful vocals helped deliver national hits with the Jaggerz and his own band, Donnie Iris and the Cruisers, has died at 83. Friends and bandmates confirmed his death on Monday after a three-year battle with bladder cancer, marking the loss of a defining figure in Western Pennsylvania's rock music history.
Iris became nationally known through songs including The Rapper, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1970, and Ah! Leah!, which peaked at No. 29 in 1980. His other recognized recordings included Love Is Like a Rock and My Girl.
Joe Grushecky, a fellow Pittsburgh musician, described Iris as an exceptionally beloved performer whose personality connected with audiences as strongly as his singing.
"For my money, he was the most beloved Pittsburgh musician of all time," said Joe Grushecky.
Grushecky also recalled Iris's influence on the local music scene during the Jaggerz's early years, when the band regularly performed covers of popular soul and British rock songs.
"I don't know anyone who was loved more than Donnie. He just had that warmth about him, and it came through in his performance," said Grushecky.
Reflecting on his childhood in a 2018 interview, Iris described how his mother introduced him to music before he had fully developed his own ambitions.
"I started off really young. I was only like 6 or 7 years old. My mother taught me how to sing when I was real little.
We had a piano in the house, and she wanted me to sing. I probably would have rather gone out to play with the kids, but she wanted me to sing," Iris said.
Iris began performing with the doo-wop group the Fabutons around 1961 while in high school. Later, at Slippery Rock State College, now Slippery Rock University, he played guitar with the Tri-Vels and Donnie and the Donnells.
In 1964, Iris and Benny Faiella formed the Jaggerz. The group built a following in the Beaver Falls club scene by performing Motown and British Invasion songs six nights a week. Grushecky remembered seeing the band during that period.
"I remember seeing him in the Jaggerz," Grushecky said.
The band's repertoire helped establish its reputation among local audiences before its breakthrough recording brought wider recognition.
"When they were basically doing Motown covers, and I thought they were the best local band I'd ever seen at the time," Grushecky said.
After signing with Gamble Records, founded by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, the Jaggerz released Introducing the Jaggerz in 1969. The following year, The Rapper, written by Iris, became their biggest national success. He explained in 2018 that the song drew inspiration from men he observed approaching women in clubs.
"That was just from playing clubs. I noticed a lot of guys at the bar would go up to chicks and start rapping to them. It was another way of saying hitting on a girl, not what rap means nowadays," Iris said.
The Jaggerz did not match that chart success again, and Iris subsequently worked with regional singer B.E. Taylor. In 1978, while employed part time as an engineer at Jeree Recording in New Brighton, he joined Wild Cherry as a guitarist and background singer, two years after the group scored a chart-topping hit with Play That Funky Music.
His time with Wild Cherry brought him together with Cleveland-based keyboardist Mark Avsec. The musicians developed a close friendship and decided to pursue their own material, eventually forming Donnie Iris and the Cruisers with guitarist Marty Lee Hoenes, bassist Albritton McClain and drummer Kevin Valentine.
Avsec remained Iris's collaborator through his final concert, which took place at the new Citizens Live at the Wylie in Pittsburgh's Hill District on Sept. 28. He remembered their relationship as both a personal friendship and a long-running musical partnership.
"He was my best friend. I was his best friend. It was a very symbiotic relationship.
He was the most ordinary guy you ever met. The air was lighter when he was in the room. The mood was brighter when he was in the room.
I tend to be on the other side. Together, we had this wonderful career. We went through challenges together, and we remained really close friends," Avsec said.
The pair began developing their own music after sharing accommodations on the road with Wild Cherry. Their work led to Back on the Streets, the album that included Ah! Leah!, a recording built around a wordless vocal hook that Iris and his collaborators later developed into a song.
Discussing the recording process, Iris recalled how a woman's name became the inspiration for the track's lyrics.
"We started out with just the hook, not even realizing it was a name. We just wanted some sort of a chant vocal going on in the song. I said, 'I know this girl named Leah. Why don't we just make the song about her?'" Iris said.
Released in 1980, Ah! Leah! gained radio attention in Cleveland and Pittsburgh before MCA Records distributed it nationally. The song reached No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became one of Iris's signature recordings, establishing Donnie Iris and the Cruisers as a major regional rock act.
