Donnie Iris-Back On The Streets (1980)

 


Artist: Donnie Iris

Title: Back On The Streets

Label: MCA/Carousel

Format: LP

Catalog Number: MCA 3272

Year of Release: 1980

Country and Year of Edition: US 1980

Sell Price: $5.79

Sell Date: 10/26/26

Condition: VG+/VG drill cutout in shrink

Discogs Last Sold: 10/27/26 VG/VG $4.50

Low: $1.50

Median: $5.39

Average: $7.75

High: $26.00 M/NM 3/2/25

Current low price: $1.20 VG/G+

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 12

Have/Want: 762/67

Where Sold: Endicott,  NY

Time It Took To Sell: 3 years

Where and When Bought:  Facebook Marketplace  lot

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B-

Sad To See It Go: No

Donnie Iris passed at 83 (!) last Monday.  He last played September 28th and announced his retirement and cancelled all dates due to advanced bladder cancer October 9th.   

This triggered the sale of his debut, Back On The Streets with the hit "Ah Leah."  I liked that song in 1980 and liked "Love Is Like A Rock" from the follow-up King Cool even more.  One thing I forgot about "Ah, Leah!" was the low voiced counter melody in the chorus.  My brain just cut that frequency right out.   Otherwise, after those two,  the Donnie Iris catalog is a bit foreign to me.  I got this copy of  Back On The Streets a few years back in a vinyl lot, so there was some curiosity to hear this in recent years.'

Donnie Iris was a hometown icon in PIttsburgh.  He had a previous Gold Record with "The Rapper" in The Jaggerz all the way back in 1970.  He joined Wild Cherry after "Play That Funky Music" and was on their 1979 album Only The Wild Survive.  MCA put him front and center in 1980,  reinventing him as a new wave icon.  For the "cool guys" that might've liked Sparks or Todd Rundgren or The Cars as the 70's came to a close.  Some of this strives beyond  it's capacity like the closer "Too Young To Love" channeling his inner Springsteen.  When he goes full throttle like on "She's So Wild" and "Joking," or beating the melody into ground in "I Can't Hear You" he does a better job.

Yinz jagoffs calm dahn n'at befer I call Donnie Iris.

FOR FURTHER REVIEW:

La Flavour-Mandolay (1979)

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