Donnie Iris Set to Sing Anthem for Pirates-Curve
CURVE, Pa. - Western Pennsylvania native Donnie Iris will sing the national anthem ahead of the Pirates-Curve Exhibition game on March 30, the Curve announced today. Iris is best known for his work when he front-lined Donnie Iris and the Cruisers, which produced the hits "Ah, Leah!" and "Love is Like a Rock".
Born in Ellwood City, Pa., Iris scored his first hit with the aforementioned, "Ah, Leah!", which started out slowly before catching steam. The song was picked up by WMMS in Cleveland before it was then added to WDVE in Pittsburgh and then WBCN in Boston. After MCA/Universal picked up the music, the song soared up the Billboard charts, reaching #29 on the Billboard singles chart. The song achieved much acclaim and went on to be one of the most played songs in the Album Oriented radio format in 1980.
The Cruisers' second album was titled King Cool and produced the hit tracks "Love is Like a Rock", which reached No. 9 on Billboard's Top Tracks chart and also "My Girl", which reached #20 on Billboard's Singles chart.
During the 1980s, Donnie Iris and the Cruisers toured with some of the biggest names in rock 'n' roll including Journey, Loverboy, Bryan Adams, Foreigner, Bon Jovi, The Romantics, Eddie Money, UFO, Nazareth, Ted Nugent, Joan Jett, Hall & Oates and the Michael Stanley Band.