This area's musical menu has added some hot-buttered soul.

Most of us are aware of the success of local acts ranging from Bentleyville's Ray Anthony ("Peter Gunn") to Washington's Joey Powers ("Midnight Mary") to Canonsburg's nearly 200 chart hits by Perry Como, Bobby Vinton, the Four Coins and, more recently, the Cynics and Jason Walker.

We've had our share of songwriters, too, especially McDonald's Jay Livingston, who wrote tunes ranging from "Buttons and Bows" to the theme for "Mr. Ed."

But the book "Sweet Soul Music," by Peter Guralnick, sheds light on another musical footnote - a song that was born here. That song was Ray Charles' "What'd I Say.' According to Guralnick, Charles created the song in 1959 while performing at a dance near Brownsville. At the end of the night, he had 15 minutes to fill and so improvised with the Raeletts, who followed his lead. ("Heyyy ... heyyy, hoooo ... hoooo).

The raucous, gospel-tinged tune was recorded on Atlantic Records six months later, and became Charles' biggest hit to that point. "What'd I Say" sold in excess of a million copies and was notable then for its groundbreaking status on Top 40 radio - it was certainly an anomaly on the mostly mellow airwaves.

The book adds that the song also was a turning point in Charles' career. Its success prompted the artist to begin playing concerts instead of dances which catapulted his popularity through the next four decades. (Many thanks to Trinity Middle School instructor Gordon Lowry for alerting me about the Brownsville "discovery.")

Two other songs that may have been conceived locally are generations apart - "Silver Bells" and "Play That Funky Music."

It's been rumored but never confirmed that Livingston wrote the lyrics to "Silver Bells" in reference to Christmas in his hometown of McDonald. The original title was "Tinkle Bells," evidently referring to the sleigh bells of street corner Santas as opposed to main street decorations. Upon realization of the other meaning of "tinkle," the title was changed. The song, by the way, was written for a Bob Hope movie, "The Lemon Drop Kid."

Wild Cherry was a Steubenville, Ohio, band that hit big with "Play That Funky Music" in 1976. It was a No. 1 song for most of the summer, and remains a radio and wedding staple today. But at the time of its release, Wild Cherry was just one of numerous bar bands playing the Western Pennsylvania circuit. That included the Green Tree Lounge on Main Street in Washington, where the band had been booked months before the song was released. So there they were, playing to a packed house of perhaps 150 people in a tiny basement club in Washington while their song was perched atop the national charts.

It wasn't everyday that such acts played here, and as a nightshift reporter back then, I was assigned to interview the band. Lead singer Robert Parissi was more than accessible (the crowd wasn't too happy, though - the interview extended the band's 20-minute break by at least 10 minutes). One of the key questions - how'd you come up with the idea for the song? - resulted in a rather startling answer. "There were some people yelling 'play some funky music' at one of our shows, so I thought it would be a good idea for a song. That happened at at the 2001 Club - in Bridgeville."

Pop music histories since then have confirmed the 2001 Club as the place of the song's birth, though none refer specifically to the Bridgeville location (the club was part of a chain). Was Parissi already a savvy promoter, or was he telling the truth?

Parissi offered an answer to one other hot topic at the time - the lyrics. "Let's just say we didn't say 'funk' every time," Parissi answered before bouncing back on stage to perform his million-seller for the third time that night. When you've just hit it big, you might as well play to your strength. And tell young reporters what they want to hear.

In memorium

They certainly didn't receive the attention of the death of Elvis Presley - or even an Elvis impersonator - but four music notables died over the past two weeks.

Jeff Healey, 41, was a blues guitarist who had one major pop hit, "Angel Eyes" in 1989. Blind since he was child, Healey learned to play his guitar on his lap. Although the artist had cancer for many years, his death was unexpected - he had always bounced back and continued to record new music. His final album, "A Mess of Blues" will be released next month.

Buddy Miles, who was born in 1946, had his first hit as the drummer for "Sally Go Round the Roses" in 1962. He then played with Wilson Pickett and eventually formed the Electric Flag band with Mike Bloomfield and, still later, the Buddy Miles Express. The explosive band that followed - The Band of Gypsies - brought him the most fame (Jimi Hendrix was a member). He sold more than a few million albums in the 1960s, and had one notable single, "Them Changes," which hit the charts in 1970 and 1971.

Michael Smith, born in 1943, was the lead singer of the Dave Clark Five (Clark was the drummer). The DC5 was second only to the Beatles in popularity in the mid-'60s, with about two dozen hits, among them "Glad All Over," "Bits and Pieces," "Because" and "Over and Over." The band also logged a record number of appearances for a pop band on "The Ed Sullivan Show." Smith was injured in a fall a few years ago, and had been confined to his home. The DC5 are being inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this month.

Norman Smith was the Beatles original engineer (through 1965) and also a producer for Pink Floyd. To pop fans, though, he may be best remembered as Hurricane Smith, a one-hit wonder with a soon-to-be karaoke favorite, "Oh Babe, What Would You Say," in 1973.

Letterbox

Lou Marra of Canonsburg writes: What happened to the Star Jones show on tru (the former Court TV)? I never watched her show, but I caught the last 15-30 seconds of it as I occasionally tuned in "Arrest and Trial," which was in the next time slot.

Reply: The show was canceled Feb.1 after just a few months on the air. Reportedly, the cancellation was a "mutual agreement" between the star (no pun intended) and network. In most instances, that translates simply into poor ratings.

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