[1][2] He also wrote the group's only hit, the 1976 chart-topping "Play That Funky Music".
[3] He was raised in the steel mill town of Mingo Junction, Ohio.
The band played the Ohio Valley region, Wheeling, West Virginia and the rest of the Northern West Virginia panhandle, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
After Wild Cherry disbanded in 1979 without another major hit, Parissi became a producer and dedicated himself to adult contemporary music.
He writes and records smooth jazz and has collaborated with Steve Oliver and Will Donato.