You never know which direction a song is going to take when you’re writing it. When it does take an unexpected twist, you should prepare to follow it instead of forcing down a road it doesn’t want to go. Donnie Iris followed that advice when writing songs for his first album as a lead artist. He ended up with a surprise Top 40 hit in “Ah! Leah!” as a result.
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Donnie’s Journey
Donnie Iris, who took that stage name in the midst of his career after being born Dominic Ierace in Western Pennsylvania, knew big pop success at an early age. As a member of The Jaggerz, Iris penned the song “The Rapper”, a rock-soul hybrid that went all the way to no. 2 in 1970.
Iris would have to wait another decade before he could taste Top 40 chart success again. He stayed busy in the interim. After The Jaggerz faded, he did a stint helping engineer an album by the band Wild Cherry of “Play That Funky Music” fame.
Wild Cherry keyboardist Mark Avsec stuck with Iris after Wild Cherry folded, and the two began writing songs for Iris to use as a lead act. They called this outfit Donnie Iris and the Cruisers. Their big hit came by accident while trying to write an anti-war song.
Loving “Leah”
As Iris and Avsec toiled away trying to write this anti-war saga, they decided somewhere along the line that they needed a dramatic vocal part to accentuate the drama. Avsec came up with something reminiscent of a Gregorian chant.
While he did this, he was singing “Ah-Leah”, although more as syllables useful for their sound than as words with meaning. When Iris heard this, he could distinguish the name Leah, which reminded him of a girl that he once knew. On the spot, they decided to change the direction of the lyrics to make it a song about romantic obsession.
Iris also went with the musical times, conjuring a sound that was far different from anything that The Jaggerz or Wild Cherry had done. “Ah! Leah” rides to glory via a combination of hard rock guitar chords and power pop melodicism. The song hit the Top 30 on the pop charts in 1980, which would prove to be the biggest hit in this period of Iris’ career.
Behind the Lyrics of “Ah! Leah!”
“Ah! Leah” paints a picture of a couple with serious passion, but little chance of making it for the long haul. The narrator falls for her all over again after not seeing her for a while. He sees the problem, but can’t help himself.
“Don’t you know we’re playing with the fire? / But we can’t stop this burnin’ desire, Leah.”
Jealousy sweeps through him when he thinks of the guys she might have dated since he’s last seen her. He understands that any reunion between them won’t last. “We both know we’re never gonna make it.”
“I can touch you, but I don’t know how to love you,” he admits. But they still go full speed ahead: “It’s no use, we’re headed for disaster / Our minds said no, but our hearts are talkin’ faster, Leah.”
While “Ah! Leah!” wasn’t a huge smash, its sound influenced many other arena rockers and New Wavers of the day. Good thing that Donnie Iris knew to follow Leah down whatever musical path she wanted to take him.
Photo by Paul Natkin/Getty Images
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