Ah! Leah!

Zoo Freaks, the Zoo Crew has got Ah! Leah! spinning right now from Donnie Iris and that 1980 album Back on the Streets, and this one has a story that is pure rock and roll weirdness mixed with some heart. Picture Donnie and his writing partner Mark Avsec sitting around the piano down in Donnie's basement, trying to cook up an anti-war song. Mark starts humming this background hook that sounds like some old Gregorian chant, just syllables rolling off his tongue as Ah Leah. Donnie hears it and says that sounds like a girl's name. Turns out there was this real pretty girl named Leah Frankford from around Ellwood City way who had dated one of the guys in The Jaggerz years back, and Donnie always liked the sound of that name even if he only knew her from a distance. So the whole anti-war idea gets tossed, they rewrite the thing into this passionate love song about wanting someone you know is trouble, and suddenly it is the track that sticks. Donnie has said in interviews that they hated how the war version was coming out and were happy once it turned into the love song. That kind of switch happens more than people think when you are writing in the basement with the piano going.

The recording itself got crazy in the studio. Those stacked background vocals on the chorus and the bridge took forever. Donnie has talked about layering his voice something like sixty times on some of the notes, sitting in there for hours and days until the sound just locked in and became that big wall of harmony that makes the song feel huge. It is one of those production tricks that turns a good track into the one radio programmers cannot ignore. The single climbed to number 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 and did even better on the rock charts, becoming the signature song for Donnie Iris and the Cruisers and basically the unofficial anthem for Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania. Steve Perry from Journey once told a story about driving across the Golden Gate Bridge, pulling over, and listening to the whole thing because he thought that was exactly how vocals were supposed to sound. That kind of respect from another singer says a lot.

Of course nothing in the music business stays simple. Some guy from Detroit claimed the background line here we go again was lifted from a tape he had sent around to labels, and he sued Donnie and Mark over it. The case dragged on for a couple of years, hanging over their heads while they were trying to follow up with more albums, and it finally got thrown out as frivolous. It cost them time and energy, but the song kept living on its own. Fans still light up when it comes on, and the real Leah found out years later through a chance connection that the song was named for her. She moved away and came back, and suddenly there were little girls named Leah showing up at softball games. Life imitates the hook sometimes.

Now as for how Donnie Iris got started, the man was born Dominic Ierace in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, back in 1943. His mother played piano and sang with local bands, and she had him singing at weddings when he was only five years old. By the time he was eight he was on local television and entering talent contests, including a run on the Paul Whiteman show. When his voice changed around twelve he picked up the drums for a while, then taught himself guitar in high school. At Slippery Rock College he put together Donnie and the Donnells, playing R&B and pop covers at frat parties. That led him into The Jaggerz, the band that scored a big number two hit in 1970 with The Rapper, a song Donnie wrote about guys chatting up girls in bars. After that group ran its course he spent some time with Wild Cherry, the Play That Funky Music outfit, and that is where he met keyboard player Mark Avsec. The two of them started writing together, put together a crew of regional players, and recorded what became Back on the Streets. The album came out first on a small Cleveland label, got local airplay that spread, and MCA picked it up for national release. Donnie suggested calling the band the Turnpike Cruisers after the old Mercury car because they were driving back and forth between Pittsburgh and Cleveland all the time, but it got shortened to the Cruisers and stuck. From the early singing lessons at the kitchen piano to the basement sessions that produced Ah! Leah!, the whole thing grew out of family encouragement and a stubborn belief that the next song might be the one.

You can keep up with Donnie Iris and the Cruisers on their official Facebook page, their Instagram, and their X account. Fans also hang out at the unofficial site Parallel Time and the Parallel Time Facebook group where people share stories and memories. And if you want more of this kind of freeform album rock with the deep cuts and the stories behind them, you know where to find the Zoo Crew spinning records for the Zoo Freaks over at THE ZOO.