Donnie Iris, regarded as Pittsburgh’s biggest hometown rock hero for a six-decade career that included hit singles in the 1960s and ’80s, died Monday at 83. He had been fighting bladder cancer for three years.
\n\nIris’ biggest chart success came as a member of the Jaggerz, who reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1970 with “The Rapper” — a song that dealt with “rapping” with girls, not the genre whose name had not yet been coined.
\n\nThat group petered out, but he went on to have continued success, especially regionally, as the frontman of Donnie Iris and the Cruisers in the age of power pop and Midwest rock. A decade after “The Rapper” broke through, Iris had a hit again with “Ah! Leah!,” which reached No. 29 on the Hot 100 in 1980. They had two more mid-level chart hits in 1981 with “Love Is Like a Rock” and “My Girl.”
\n\nHis modest success during that era on the Billboard charts was hardly indicative of just how beloved he was in his native Pennsylvania and the Midwest region, widely seen as being to Pittsburgh what Michael Stanley was to Cleveland.
\n\n“For my money, he was the most…
Original source: https://variety.com/v/tv/